If I Fell
by 23 Enigma
Summary: Kurt's mysterious past finally catches up with him, but with these revelations comes a much darker foe. Will his fellow X-Men be able to save Kurt from his inner demons?


IF I FELL

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own "X-Men: Evolution", "The Beatles", or anything else in this story either outright mentioned or parodied. I only say I wrote the story; that's it.

Story: takes place after "Ascension (Part 2)"

Summary: Kurt's mysterious past finally catches up with him, but with these revelations comes a much darker foe. Will his fellow X-Men be able to save Kurt from his inner demons?

Pairings: Kurt + Kitty, slight Remy + Rogue

Rating: PG-13 / T to be safe

* * *

"SOON… VERY SOON…" an ancient voice growled.

"My King," a voice interrupted. The figure approached slowly. "We have arrived, as was your request."

"YOU WILL OBEY ME… YOU ARE BOUND TO ME…"

The figure nodded. "Of course, my King. What are your commands?"

"FREEDOM… BEFORE THE NEXT FULL MOON SETS…"

"My King, you will have your freedom. We have sworn our lives to that goal. But how will we set you free from this prison?"

"MY SON…" A pause was made, and with it, the six servants leaned closer to hear his response. "BRING ME… MY SON… HE WILL SET ME FREE…"

The six servants bowed. "As you command, Shadow King!"

* * *

"Professor! The phone's for you!" Amara shouted.

_Thank you, Amara. You can hang up now,_ the Professor telepathically responded to her.

"Yes, Charles Xavier. How may I help you?" he spoke.

"Charles…" the voice responded. "It's me… Raven…"

"Raven Darkholme?" Charles asked. "Or do you prefer… 'Mystique'?"

He heard her catch her breath. "This is not the time for our usual banter, Charles. There is something very urgent I must tell you. It involves… Kurt…"

"I'm listening," he said.

"Destiny has had another vision," Mystique started.

Charles nodded. "Go on…"

"She has foreseen the future. It's terrible, just as apocalyptic as before."

"What were the details of her dream?"

Mystique sighed. "She won't say much. Ever since she's had this vision, she's barely spoken." Charles could hear Mystique was also at her emotional limit. "She's been writing nonsensical symbols, almost as if it were a different language. I've already sent the writings to you and they should be arriving shortly. I hope that you can make more use of this information than I can."

"Of course. I will do what I can."

"But there is something I managed to find out, Charles. She's been saying one thing over and over again, just repeating it and repeating it."

Charles nodded. "Tell me, Raven, what is she saying?"

Mystique took a small breath before she continued. "'Humanity will fall. He is returning. Keep your son out of the shadows.'" She sighed. "What does this mean, Charles?" Mystique pleaded.

Charles put his hands to his face and sighed. "I just do not know…"

* * *

"Gooooooooooal!" Bobby shouted. He and Jubilee high-fived. "That makes it nine to seven! Read it and weep-sauce!"

Roberto not-so-silently swore.

"Lucky shot," Rahne mumbled.

"Yes, only one point away from victory!" Jubilee said.

Rahne groaned. "Since when did you two become so good at foosball?" she asked.

Bobby grinned. "You know me. Epicly awesome at everything."

Jubilee scoffed. "I heard that…" Bobby muttered.

Logan eyed the four of them and then continued to read his newspaper. "Kids…" he grumbled.

Before he could get through the first article, Professor Xavier entered the room. "Logan, I'd like to speak to you."

Logan quickly got up and followed the Professor down the hall. "What's up, Chuck? I thought normally we leave the serious conversations till after I finish with the sports section."

Charles smirked but kept his composure. "I have just received some pressing information from Mystique regarding one of Destiny's visions."

"Mystique?" Logan lit a cigar and started to smoke. "It's never a good thing when that woman's involved."

"I am afraid you're right. Though this time I do not believe she is the cause, merely the bearer of some bad news. I am currently having Ororo and Hank look into it, but I believe it would be best if we took some other precautions as well."

Logan let out a small puff of smoke. "So what do you need me to do? Solo mission?"

"Not exactly. At the moment, I need you keep an eye on Kurt. Protect him if need be."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "The elf? What's he got to do with this?"

Charles sighed. "Mystique was told by Destiny to 'keep her son out of the shadows'. I am not exactly sure of it, but it most likely means that Kurt is part of all this. I'm afraid Kurt may now be the target of unknown, dark forces. We must keep him safe."

"Understood," Logan said. "I won't let him out of my sight…"

"Where is he now?" Charles asked.

Logan shrugged.

Charles gave Logan a stern look. Logan nervously swallowed. "Don't worry. I was kidding. Kurt said that he was going to the mall with Rogue and Kitty. By the sounds of the complaining he made earlier, I think he lost a bet or something. Going to the mall with those two is never a pretty sight."

Charles nodded. "I doubt anything is going to happen, though I would prefer it if you could-"

"Go down to the mall and keep an eye on the elf. Armed babysitting duty, my specialty. I'm on it," Logan interrupted as he started to head towards the door.

"Thank you, Logan," Charles responded.

"Hey, you know me. I do it for the kids." Logan gave the Professor a thumbs up and left the mansion. "They're our future or some crap like that…"

* * *

"So which is better, Kurt? The amaranth top or the cerise one?" Kitty said as she held up both pink shirts. "I like the material of this one, but the other has a much cuter design in the front."

Kurt groaned. "They look the same."

"How can they look the same? They're two completely different shades of pink!"

"They are?" he asked, scratching his head in confusion. "I guess I'm kinda tired. Can't see any difference."

She sighed. "I thought you'd at least feign some interest in this, considering we're only going to the videogame store afterwards to keep you amused."

"I know, I know. But I'm not good at fashion, Kitty. I don't really have any idea what's better at all," Kurt began. "In fact, I'm so bad at this that maybe it would be better if I left you and Rogue…"

Kitty glared at him. "Are you forgetting that you, like, promised to cheer me up after my break up with Lance?"

Kurt nervously scratched his head. "No…" he said with a smile. "But that was months ago."

"I didn't know your promises had expiration dates, Kurt," she said. "I still feel depressed about it, especially now that it's almost Valentine's. And you promised to cheer me up."

"I didn't think that cheering you up meant making me suffer," he muttered to himself. Kurt shrugged and pointed at the shirt she was holding in her left hand. "But if I must pick, I guess the one in your right hand looks a bit nicer."

"'Nicer'?"

"Uh… I mean… 'cuter'…"

Kitty smiled and then quickly started going through the pants she had picked. "Thank you. See? That wasn't so bad."

"But I think you look fine just the way you are, Kätzchen."

She smiled. "Aww, that's so sweet." Kitty then glared at him. "But that's such a guy thing to say. You have no idea the amount of trouble it takes to look good every day. Fashion is important to girls. And dressing good helps you feel good. Understand?"

"No, not really…"

"Boys…" she said to herself as she continued to look for clothes.

He rolled his eyes and turned to Rogue, hoping for some reply. "Haven't we been here long enough, Rogue? It's been almost as hour."

"I'm here for the emotional support, sugar," she responded. "We'll be here for as long as it takes to help Kitty feel better."

He eyed her. "Yeah, well you're paying an awful lot of attention to those shoes to be doing any 'emotional support'," he mumbled. Though she would never admit it, and she never would, Rogue did have an interest in fashion that was really only put to shame by Kitty. He was sure Rogue did want to cheer up her friend as well, but Kurt assumed she wanted to look at the deals on the new shoes as that was an added bonus.

"And shouldn't spending time with your two best friends cheer you up as well, Kurt?" Kitty asked him.

"Yeah… That's true…"

"Okay then, so the chartreuse pants or the jade ones?" Kitty asked. "These are cut a bit better but this one would look much better with my belt."

"I'm going crazy…" he mumbled to himself. Kurt stood up and turned to them. "I think we're all really hungry. I'll go get you girls some ice cream."

"Cherry vanilla!" Kitty said.

"I'll take a lemon if they have it," Rogue said.

Kurt nodded and headed off, happy to leave the girls to their shopping spree while he could get some personal time. "Don't forget! Cherry vanilla!" he heard Kitty shout as he left the store. He sighed. He already knew what her favorite flavor was; she didn't have to remind him.

True, he had promised Kitty to cheer her up after her not-so-pleasant break up with Lance, but now he really regretted it. He wasn't feeling bad about promising to be there for Kitty, though spending hours at the mall wasn't his idea of fun. It was closer to torture, actually.

He was 19 now. It had been about half a year since Amanda left, heading off to college on the west coast, while Kurt decided to stay at the Institute and help teach, just as Scott, Jean, and Rogue had done. Doing so meant that Kurt and Amanda would be separated. Knowing that long distance relationships rarely worked out, Kurt and Amanda mutually decided to end their relationship. It was on sad, but good terms, or at least as good as the situation could make them. He and Amanda at least continued to stay in contact a bit, but the break up still left him understandably down.

He was also having the same family problems he's always had with trying to get Rogue to open up more. She was still not ready to start delving into heart-to-heart conversations, especially whenever the issue of Mystique was brought up. It was hard getting Rogue to act more like a sibling if there were always personal and awkward topics he couldn't talk to her about, namely Mystique. He really wished that he would be able to connect better with her.

But mostly, Kurt had been a little out of it lately due to sleeping problems. For the past while now, he's had nightmares. He had always woken up terrified, but he could never recall what his dreams were about. He didn't want to tell the Professor about them, since he could think of no real significance behind the nightmares or even any cause for them. All he really knew was that he was getting more tired and irritable as the days pressed on, which meant worse performances in the Danger Room. That, of course, meant more bruises and extra practices with Logan. All in all, Kurt was just feeling down. And he was finding it hard to cheer up others when he didn't feel so great himself.

"Three small ice creams, please," he said as he walked up to the counter.

The woman glared at him. "Hey! I know you! You're one of those Xavier mutants!"

"Not this again," he muttered to himself. Events like this were common and Kurt had to learn to deal with them without letting his anger get the better of him. "Yes, yes I am," he said clearly to her. "I would like to buy three small ice creams."

She laughed. "We're out. Now step out of line; you're holding up business."

"If you're out of stock, then I believe your business should be over for the day. Am I correct?" he angrily retorted.

"Don't get smart with me, mutie!" She pointed to the phone behind her. "Or do I have to call security to make you leave?"

Kurt glared at her but didn't react. "I understand, Frӓulein."

"That's right! We don't want your business, freak!"

Kurt crossed his arms in disgust. "Was sagt dein Gewissen? Du sollst der werden, der du bist." He turned around and left.

* * *

"He's here. I can feel it," a cloaked figure stated. The figure turned to five similarly dressed people. All six wore black cloaks that covered their entire bodies, hiding even their faces. "Eleazar, can you handle communications and reconnaissance?"

"Of course." As soon as he finished replying, five small butterflies drifted toward the others and landed in their pockets.

"Good." The figure turned to the other five. "When you find him, contact the rest of us. Do not engage him by yourself. We'll take him together. There may be numerous mutants here as well, his allies. Though they should be no problem for us, it would be best for this to go as smoothly as possible. The King has been waiting for far too long for things to go wrong now. We have our order. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ishboshet," the other five replied.

"Then let's go find Kurt Wagner." The six cloaked figures split up in search of their target. They knew he was here in the mall, and it would only be a matter of time before they found him.

* * *

"I can't believe I had to walk to the other side of the mall for this…" Kurt mumbled to himself. He finally managed to find an ice cream vendor that he could buy from, but it took him over five minutes alone just to walk there. And that meant an equally long walk back to where Rogue and Kitty were. He really wished he could teleport, but he knew that it was rather taboo while in public. Even more taboo than him not wearing his holo-watch, which he knew would remain taboo for many, many years to come, he thought to himself.

As Kurt rounded the corner, a cloaked figure from the second floor noticed him. The figure slowly pulled out a small butterfly. The figure brought the butterfly up to the opening of the hood and spoke. "Eleazar, notify the others. Our target's on the south side of the first floor, heading north. We'll meet at the bridge near the center of the mall."

The butterfly's antennae shook and then the butterfly swiftly flew off. The cloaked figure walked north, all while making sure to keep Kurt in sight. As the figure neared the bridge, the other five could be seen walking towards it, also following their own butterflies.

"Good work, Shammah," one of the figures said as they all reached the bridge, directly above Kurt. The six butterflies flew back into one of the six's pocket. One of them nodded. "Now!"

The six cloaked figures then leapt off the bridge and landed on the floor below. They quickly surrounded Kurt to keep him from walking any further. Shocked, Kurt dropped the ice cream and got into a defensive stance. People could be heard shouting in fear and many others had started to form a crowd, staring at Kurt and the six cloaked people.

"What's going on?" Kurt asked. "Who are you?"

"You're coming with us, Kurt Wagner," one of them said.

"How do you know my name?"

"We have known you all your life. For you are the King's son," another stated.

"What? 'King's son'? What are you talking about?" Kurt glared at them.

"You are the Shadow Prince, son of the mighty ruler, the Shadow King!"

"Look, I have no idea what you guys are talking about, so I recommend you leave now or else things are going to get rough!" Kurt was trying to sound tough, but he was actually starting to get nervous. He could probably handle six unarmed men because of his years of training as an acrobat and an X-Man. But he couldn't tell if these six were armed or not. Worse, he wasn't sure if they had any mutant abilities. But at the very least he knew that if the situation was looking unfavorable, he would be able to lead them on a chase or he could teleport away.

"You will come with us!" one figure shouted.

"Who are you?" Kurt asked.

"Who are we? You have forgotten! We're just like you!" The six figures pulled down their hoods and Kurt could not believe his eyes. All six of them had pointed ears and glowing eyes. And, if he was right, skin-colored fur all over their skin. He then noticed they each had a pointed-tail and he could see they had only three fingers on each hand. Three of them were boys and the other three were girls, though they all appeared to be about Kurt's age, maybe a touch younger but it was hard to tell because of their cloaks.

"Will you come with us now, my Prince?" one of the boys asked.

"What?" Kurt was so shocked he didn't know how to react. "But how? How can you look like me?"

One of the girls walked up to Kurt and turned off his halo-watch, revealing his naturally blue self. "You see, my Prince? You're just like us. You belong with us," she said.

"What? But… I don't understand…" he began.

"Elf!" Kurt turned around and saw Logan running towards them. "Quick, get out of there!" Logan yelled to him.

The cloaked girl in front of Kurt sighed. "Pity," she said to herself. "This complicates things." She turned to one of the other five. "Shall I, Ishboshet?"

He nodded and immediately the girl transformed into a white gas. The boy turned to face Logan. He lifted his arm and opened his palm. Suddenly a huge wave of invisible energy blasted out of his hand, bending even the floor as it flew across. The force came into contact with Logan and sent him flying through the air. He landed on his back and slid several feet backwards. People had started to scream and run away. Before Kurt could react, the white cloud of smoke moved towards him. As soon as he breathed in the gas, he started to feel dizzy, slow, and tired. The gases moved back to their original position and reformed into the cloaked girl. Kurt watched her smile just as he passed out. The other two boys in cloaks grabbed Kurt before he fell.

"Good work, Ziz," said the boy who sent the wave of energy at Logan. He then spotted Kitty and Rogue running to Logan and helping him back up. "More reinforcements? Eleazar, Shammah: get the Prince out of here. Ziz and I will make sure our trail is covered. Livyatan, Behemot: buy us some time and then leave. Don't turn this into more of a fight than needed. Make it quick. Meet up with us at the base after you're done."

"Yes, Ishboshet," the five answered. Ishboshet nodded and the four of them took off while Livyatan and Behemot turned to Logan.

"Great… No rest for the wicked, I guess…" Behemot said as Kitty and Rogue ran at them.

Livyatan smirked. "I haven't had fun like this in a while." She turned to her partner. "It's a shame this'll have to be cut short. How long do you think we should give them?"

Behemot yawned and cracked her knuckles. "I think five minutes should be good. It'll be enough time for Ishboshet and the Prince to escape."

Livyatan nodded. "Just enough time for us to enjoy this. Let's make it a challenge. How about I only use my left arm and you can only go fifteen feet?"

Behemot saw Logan charging at them and sighed. "Fine. But then I get to take the one with the metal claws. That should at least make it a bit more interesting."

"Wonderful," Livyatan responded. "I wanted to teach those girls a thing or two anyway."

* * *

Logan leapt at Behemot, but she caught him. Logan had only pushed her back a few inches, not even getting her to lose her balance at all. Her entire body then started to grow, until she reached over twice her height. She easily picked Logan up and threw him at a pillar. The pillar cracked as Logan hit it, showing the force at which Behemot had thrown him. "It's boring already…" Behemot groaned.

Livyatan raised her left arm, and it suddenly started to melt and reform. She then used her new rubber-like arm as a whip and flung it at Kitty and Rogue. Kitty phased through the whip and Rogue just barely managed to jump and dodge it. The tip of her arm then transformed into a scythe and Livyatan swung her arm back. Not expecting an attack from behind, the blade grazed Rogue's shoulder and cut Kitty's side.

"Haha!" Livyatan shouted. "You'll have to do better than that!" The two girls glared at her and Livyatan smirked.

"Where're you taking Kurt?" Logan asked as he lunged at Behemot again.

She caught Logan's arms before he managed to stab her. "I don't have to tell you anything." She then kicked Logan in the stomach and threw him across the hall.

He slowly got to his feet. "You know, I've got six reasons you may want to start talking right now." He pointed his claws at Behemot. "Or do you want to do this the hard way?"

"You're not in the position to make threats. I think you forgot that I'm way bigger than you." She charged at Logan, who jumped aside and slashed her arm.

She looked at her arm and saw three faint scratch marks. "Not even bleeding…" she muttered to herself. "This is going to be even more boring that I thought…" she mumbled.

Livyatan, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying herself. She was able to keep Rogue and Kitty constantly on the defensive by continuously attacking. As Livyatan's arm whipped towards Kitty, she phased through the attack and ran at her opponent. She jumped and extended her leg, aiming to kick Livyatan's face. But just at her foot was inches from hitting, Livyatan's arm caught Kitty and pinned her to the ground.

"Too slow," Livyatan taunted.

"Tell me where Kurt is!" Kitty pleaded.

Livyatan only laughed and tightened her hold on Kitty, causing her to scream in pain. After a few seconds, Kitty phased out of Livyatan's grasp and backed away, putting some distance between the two.

"I really thought the Prince's friends would be stronger than this." She eyed Kitty, who was hurt and worn out from the fight. "I also thought they wouldn't be so ugly. God, you're an eyesore. You have almost no chest and you're as thin as a twig-"

Rogue took the opportunity of her opponent's preoccupation and punched Livyatan is the stomach. She flew backwards and landed on the ground. She groaned as she got up. "Heh, I almost forgot about his other ugly friend. The one with the awful hair and big behind."

"You forgot that I've got a mean right hook, furball!" Rogue retorted. She walked over to Kitty and helped her up.

"How dare you!" Livyatan shouted. "Are you going to lecture me on beauty, skunk-hair?" She scowled and turned to her partner. "Behemot, it's been long enough. Let's go."

Behemot nodded and picked up Logan by his throat. "You can't even keep me entertained for five minutes, and I'm only at a quarter of my max size," she said to him. She then threw Logan to the ground and walked over to Livyatan. "What? The two girls aren't any fun anymore?"

Livyatan scoffed. "They'd both be nothing if I was really trying. Besides, having to look at their ugly faces for this long really aggravates me."

Behemot rolled her eyes. "Whatever…" she muttered to herself. She then stretched up as high as she could and quickly smashed the ground in front of her. The force of her attack shook the ground and sent debris flying everywhere. The three X-Men covered their eyes. By the time the dust had settled, the two cloaked girls had vanished.

Logan sniffed the air. "I can't get a good lock on any of their scents. I think the one who turned into smoke covered their trails."

"But we have to go after them right now! The ones who took Kurt already have a five minute lead!" Kitty said.

"That's exactly why we're not going after them, half-pint. There's no way we would be able to catch up to them. Not in our condition. You're bleeding and Rogue's pretty shook up, too. And we don't even know which direction they ran in. It'd be a waste of time and energy," he replied.

"We can't just do nothing…" Kitty said.

Rogue sighed, admitting momentary defeat. "What would they want with Kurt? And why did they refer to him as their 'Prince'? Then who's their 'King'?"

Logan shrugged. "Good questions that I don't have any answers for. I think it's best if we return home, get you two treated for your wounds. Luckily, I heal pretty fast, but you two need to rest a bit. Then let's talk to the Professor and get a plan. Chuck's not gonna be happy I didn't protect Kurt, but at least we get to report that this mysterious group of six want him for this 'King'."

"Mr. Logan…" Kitty began.

He sighed. "Don't worry, we're not giving up the elf without a fight. We'll get him back."

"I don't like this," Kitty said. "This feels like they just scored a point, we lost a member of our team, and we still don't know what game we're playing."

"Sports metaphor?" Rogue asked. "The last time I heard you talk about sports was when the Cubs blew their chance at making it to the Pennant."

"Yeah," Kitty mumbled. "I was pissed off then, too."

* * *

"Any progress, Dr. McCoy?" Piotr asked.

Hank closed his eyes and massaged his tired eyelids. "No, not really. I can't recognize the symbols Destiny wrote. And, to be honest, my ancient Egyptian is quite rusty."

Piotr nodded and set another stack of books down near Hank. "Let me know if there's anything else you need me to do."

Hank smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Piotr. Research like this is not only tedious, but extremely difficult. Charles may need me to help translate these texts, but that doesn't mean I'm going to actually be able to do it."

"I thought your language skills were very good," Piotr said.

Hank shrugged. "I'm a high school teacher, not a walking dictionary. This is a bit out of my league."

Scott and Jean entered the library room. Piotr turned to them. "Any luck?"

Jean shook her head. "Kurt's parents are as clueless about this as we are. They said that they haven't heard of anything odd or unusual happening in Germany, and Kurt hasn't told them about anything out of the ordinary."

Scott spoke up. "It doesn't look like the Brotherhood is tied to this, either. Wanda told me that they don't know anything about this, but she said that she'll talk to her father. But I don't really see what good talking to Magneto will do…"

Hank sighed. "So we still have no idea what we're dealing with. Fantastic. These 'shadows' can mean a hundred different things. Many different cultures throughout history have made references to shadows. Until we can narrow down our search, we won't be able to get anywhere at all."

As soon as Hank finished speaking, Ororo and Forge entered the room. Forge turned to the others. "I came out here special to help you guys and you're too bummed to even greet me."

"We're still at square one," Scott said.

"Well, get ready for some good news and bad news," Forge added. "As relayed by Logan."

"Let's go with bad news first," Scott grimly replied.

"Kurt has been kidnapped and Kitty, Rogue, and Logan are being treated in the infirmary," Ororo said.

"Kurt's been kidnapped?" Jean shouted. "How? By who? And are the other three okay?"

"A group of six people wearing cloaks knocked Kurt out and injured the rest. They weren't able to follow their tracks and made a clean getaway," Ororo responded.

Hank groaned. "This day just went from bad to terrible. I don't know what we're going to do now…"

"But that leads us to our good news," Forge said. "This group of six isn't your regular group of normal people. They're all mutants. Gravity manipulation and body mass enlargement are only a couple of their powers. But that's not the really interesting thing. Turns out all of them look like Kurt. Tails, pointed ears, fur, the whole deal. The only real difference is that their fur is skin-colored and not blue. Well… I guess Kurt's fur is skin-colored as well, but he's got blue skin."

"So there are other… 'Kurts'?" Jean asked.

"How can that be? I thought Kurt's physical traits are a part of his mutation," Scott said.

"Perhaps," Hank began. "Or perhaps not. It is true that genetic mutations could result in similar mutant powers. For example, look at Mesmero, Mastermind, Jean, and the Professor. It's rare, but not impossible. However, the fact that there are six of these 'Kurts' with other unique mutant powers as well leads me to believe that Kurt's physical traits are not a part of his mutation."

"So what are you saying, Hank?" Ororo asked.

"I believe that Kurt's teleportation ability is his mutant power. But the rest of his physical traits are something else."

"What do you mean by 'something else'? And how can you explain the similarity of physical traits among all seven of them then?" Piotr asked.

Hank shrugged. "I would have to guess genetics. There's a good chance they're all related. After all, if your parents have blonde hair, there's a chance you'll have blonde hair as well. Kurt may have inherited his blue skin from Mystique. Therefore I assume that it would be his father, his biological father, who had a hand in his physical traits as well as the other six."

"So, you believe Kurt is related to those other six?" Ororo asked. "You think he's their brother?"

"Truthfully, it's just a guess. They may be blood-related. They may not be. Both Kurt and I are blue-furred mutants, yet we're not related anymore than me and you. Without any way to test these hypotheses, they're really just an educated man's ramblings."

"Well, an educated man's ramblings are better than a random stab in the dark," Piotr said.

"But you believe Kurt's father to be important?" Scott asked. "Somehow he's responsible for all this?"

"I'd say so," Forge said. "The group of six referred to Kurt as their 'Prince' and some other, unknown figure as their 'King'. Maybe Kurt's father is their king and thus the final piece of this puzzle."

"This really is getting complex now," Jean muttered. "But at least now we know there's something really big at work here."

Piotr sighed. "Yes, but that's about all we know. As Dr. McCoy stated earlier, we don't know what we're really looking for. 'Shadows', 'prince', 'king'. They could be any culture's mythology. We're still lost."

Forge snapped his fingers. "Maybe not. Logan mentioned this. Our group of six has names, courtesy of Kitty, Rogue, and Logan overhearing them talk before they escaped. In alphabetical order, they are: Behemot, Eleazar, Ishboshet, Livyatan, Shammah, and Ziz. I'd make a nice anagrams out of their first initials, but the best I could come up with was… Actually, I couldn't come up with anything…"

"Interesting," Hank said.

"It sounds like they got their names from _Lord of the Rings_…" Scott muttered to himself.

"The names sound Hebrew, actually," Hank said. "And here I was flipping through the Egyptian texts. Though, even if they are a part of Hebrew history or mythology, they may only provide some clues and no real knowledge. Stories can be mistranslated, altered, or even inaccurate. I'll certainly look into this, but who knows what we'll find."

"Let's get back to work then," Scott said. "The faster we accomplish even just the researching, the faster we can rescue Kurt."

"Forge, would you like to help Dr. McCoy and the others?" Ororo asked.

"Sure. I think I might be able to build some kind of translator that can help," he said as his arm transformed into its mechanical version. "Far out!"

Ororo nodded and left the library. She headed towards the infirmary to check on Kitty and Rogue. She knew Logan had probably fully healed by now, but the two girls may need more medical attention.

On the other side of the Institute, Charles was deep in thought in his office. Cerebro proved to be no help in locating Kurt; the group must have been hiding all of their mental signatures. Their current location remained unknown. That only left him with Destiny's words: "Humanity will fall. He is returning. Keep your son out of the shadows." But no matter how hard he tried, he kept arriving at nothing. He could not figure out what was their deeper meaning.

Charles then heard the doorbell ring. Truthfully, it had not interrupted his thought, but he did not feel up to entertaining any guests. _Bobby,_ Charles mentally spoke. _Can you please tell whoever has arrived that the Institute is closed for visit today? Thank you._

He waited a few moments as heard Bobby open the door.

_Uh… Professor?_

_Yes, Bobby?_

_I think you may want to come to the door. It's important._

Charles sighed and quickly left his office. As he rounded the corner, he saw Bobby talking to none other than Remy LeBeau, also known as "Gambit".

"Mr. LeBeau," Charles said. "How nice of you to acquaint yourself with my X-Men. Now, what is it that you have come for?"

"My dear Professor," Remy said as looked at Charles. "I come with a message."

"Whose?" Charles asked cautiously.

"Magneto."

* * *

Kurt groaned and slowly opened his eyes. As everything came back into focus, Kurt quickly realized that he had no idea where he was. "Wunderbar," he mumbled to himself. He saw that he was in some cage. The room itself was very poorly lit. Because of his enhanced night vision, Kurt was able to make out that there was only one exit, and it was a locked metal door.

"Don't even think about trying to escape, my Prince," said a voice behind Kurt. He turned around and saw two of the cloaked people who kidnapped him. He could tell they were both boys, and neither looked like they were the leader of the group.

"We know how your teleportation works," the other said. "You can't teleport to anywhere you can't see or don't know or else you might end up in a wall or something. So save yourself the trouble and just stay put until the others get back."

Kurt rubbed his head. "I still don't understand what's going on. Who are you, and why do you want me?"

Both boys groaned. "He really has lost his memory, hasn't he?" one said to the other. He then turned to Kurt. "I am Eleazar and this is Shammah. You are the Prince. The six of us dutifully serve you and, in your absence, your father."

"And you kidnapped me just for that?" Kurt asked.

Shammah nodded.

"That's total nonsense!" Kurt shouted at them. "You guys have got it all wrong!"

"No," Eleazar stated. "You are the Prince. We are sure of it."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Can you at least explain why you all look like me?" Kurt asked. "If I look like you guys, does that mean we're related?"

Eleazar laughed. "No, no, my Prince. We six are far beneath your royal blood. We serve in your court, but we are not blood-related. We are all merely of the same kind."

"What do you mean by 'kind'? Do you mean mutants?" Kurt asked.

Shammah shook his head. "No, not exactly. Even though we all have mutant powers like other humans, this is different. We are different from the ones you call your 'friends'," Shammah said. "We're not humans… You're not human… Well, only half, really…"

"There have been various names we've been called throughout the ages and throughout the world," said Eleazar. "Perhaps you would be most familiar with the English term 'demons'."

Kurt eyes opened in shock. "Are you serious? There's no such thing as demons!"

Eleazar laughed again. "I see the humans have blinded you to such realities. Of course demons exist. What you call 'myths' and 'legends' all have some basis of truth. Demons aren't the only unknown beings that walk the Earth: gods like Thor, dragons like your pet Lockheed, magical beings like Shuma-Gorath, and even aliens like Super-Skrull."

"But don't confuse demons with devils," Shammah added. "That would be Blackheart and his brethren. Completely separate."

Eleazar smirked. "Seriously, could you believe it if demons were responsible for Ghost Rider, Shammah? Now that would be funny."

Shammah chuckled. "Won't see me on a motorcycle any time soon…"

Kurt shook his head in confusion. "This is crazy. Okay, let's assume you're telling the truth, and I am a demon. Why am I your prince? And since when did I have a pet dragon?"

"There really is no explanation as to why you're our prince. You just are. You're the King's son and thus the Prince. It's in your blood," Shammah said. "And I can't believe you forgot about Lockheed."

Eleazar shrugged his shoulders. "He's probably long dead by now anyway…"

Kurt looked at them. "So what do you even want me for?"

Eleazar sighed. "As the Prince, it is your duty to follow your father's order, just as it is our duty to follow yours."

Shammah nodded. "Yup. To serve and obey."

"And what does this 'King' command?" Kurt asked.

"That you set him free before the next full moon sets," stated Shammah.

"Why?"

"So that he can claim his rightful place as ruler over all that belongs to the shadows," Eleazar said. "Which means humanity will finally bow down to us. The time of humans is over, my Prince. Humanity will fall. And demons will rule this planet."

"I would never agree to that! It sounds as though you're speaking of genocide!" Kurt shouted.

"Not genocide," Shammah said. "Humans are not our people. We would merely be cleansing the world of a lesser species."

"I don't care how you reword it! If we let this King get his way, there will be deaths everywhere! I will not set the King free, and I will not allow you to do this. Professor Xavier has taught me that people can learn to live together with each other peacefully."

Both Eleazar and Shammah glared at Kurt. Eleazar spoke up. "They deserve to be exterminated after what they've done to us…"

Kurt ignored that comment and continued to speak. "I don't know what this is about, but killing is never the answer. I will always choose peace over war. Even if I am a demon as well, I will not let demons triumph at the cost of humans."

"You honestly believe humans and demons can coexist? Humans and mutants are already at each others' throats, and you think humans will be accepting enough of demons? Humans can't even get along with themselves. Race, gender, class, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation have alienated people from one another. Families are separated by this. Humans don't get along with each other; there'd be no way that they'd be accepting of demons," Eleazar stated. "The only way demons can live free lives is by making the world ours and ours alone. And this is what your father has promised."

"I'm sorry that your naïve views are at such odds with your father's, my Prince," Shammah said. "But you can't disobey his orders. And I'm sure you'll find his grand vision much more appealing when we get you your memory back."

"Memory?" asked Kurt.

"Yes. Unlike the six of us, your entrance to the human world didn't go over smoothly. It was interfered with. Nevertheless, the King will no doubt be able to refresh your memory. Then you will truly be the Shadow Prince," said Shammah.

"And what if I disagree?"

"You don't have a choice in the matter," countered Eleazar. "We must all obey the Shadow King, my Prince."

"And you'll need your memory in order to free him," Shammah said.

Kurt heard the metal door behind him open and close. He turned around and saw the other four cloaked figures enter.

"Oh, so how went the brawls, Livyatan?" Eleazar asked.

"I bet she lost her cool again…" Shammah whispered.

"I heard that!" Livyatan shouted. "Say something again, and I'll cut you into two!"

Eleazar chuckled, and Shammah whistled as a response. Livyatan groaned and started to walk towards the two. Before she could get very far, Behemot grabbed a hold of her cloak and prevented her from walking any further. "Can't we all just chill for a bit?" she lazily asked.

Ziz giggled. "Come on. Let's not fight in front of the Prince. We don't want him to think poorly of us." She walked over to his cage and looked at Kurt. She smiled and licked her lips. "I only want you to think of the best of things when you think of me…"

"Enough!" Ishboshet shouted. Immediately, the other five regained their composure and stopped whatever they were doing. "How dare you embarrass yourselves like this? I will not tolerate such unruly behavior in front of the Prince…" he said as he walked towards Kurt.

"So you must be the leader," Kurt said.

Ishboshet nodded. "You have given me the honor to lead the rest of these fools while you were absent. However, I still humbly serve you and your father. I am always loyal to you, my Prince."

Kurt scoffed but Ishboshet continued. "We went to talk to your father, my Prince. He is most pleased that we have finally found you. In fact, he wishes to see you now."

"Great," Kurt sarcastically replied.

"We will bring you to him. This will be a great meeting, my Prince. The King will help you regain your memory and, with it, the proper title as the Shadow Prince," Ishboshet stated. Kurt angrily stared at him, but kept quiet. Ishboshet continued. "Humanity will fall. The King is returning. The Prince will lead us into eternal shadows."

The six of them all bowed. Then they all spoke together. "Long live the Shadow King! Long live the Shadow Prince!"

* * *

Kitty groaned. "This is boring. We should be helping the others look for Kurt or at least do some research. Why are we stuck here in the infirmary?"

"If I recall correctly, bleeding out of your side and some severe bruises usually leads to hospital time…" Logan responded.

"You know what I mean! And I'm totally doing better now! So we can't just lie around! Those fuzzy elves just kidnapped our fuzzy elf, and we're just sitting here!" said Kitty.

Rogue nodded. "I hate feeling useless like this. We should be doing something."

"Kurt's always there for me… It's terrible not having him around. We should be out there, Mr. Logan!" Kitty said. "I can heal later! Now's the time for action!"

Logan sighed. "Listen, I understand your frustration. But you heard what the Professor said. You two need to rest. He's got the rest of the X-Men working on finding Kurt, so you two can just go back to resting. It'll be a lot better for all of us if you remain patient and, most of all, quiet."

"And how'd you get stuck with us?" Rogue asked.

He grunted. "Responsibilities, kids. I'm babysitting you two, not supposed to let you wander off," he replied. "Since you both can't be trusted to remain put."

Kitty crossed her arms. "Well, I'm, like, done resting. I want to go help now."

"Comment noted. Now stay put, half-pint."

Kitty put her hands together and made her best puppy face. "Please, Mr. Logan? Can we go now?"

Logan angrily stood up. "No! What kind of a fool do you take me for, half-pint?"

"A slow one," Kitty said as she jumped at Logan. As soon as she touched him, she started to phase them both through the wall behind Logan. When they were about half-way through, Kitty let go of him and walked backwards. This left a surprised and very unhappy Logan trapped in the wall.

"What did you do?" he asked as he looked around. "Let me out of here!"

Kitty stuck her tongue out and walked over to Rogue.

"When I get out of here, and if I haven't already sliced you two into shreds for this, you'll be doing extra Danger Room sessions until next century!" he shouted.

"I'd love to stay and chat, Mr. Logan, but Rogue and I are busy. We're going to go be of some use now. See ya!" And with that, Kitty phased both herself and Rogue through wall and left Logan trapped in the wall.

"That was awesome! I can't believe you did that," Rogue said as the two of them walked to the elevator. "You do know he's not joking about that Danger Room thing, right?"

"I don't care," Kitty said. "I'm right. We should be out looking for Kurt or helping the others do some research."

Rogue nodded. "So what's the game plan, then?"

Kitty pressed the button for the elevator. "We'll let the Professor know that we want to help, too. And if he disagrees, we're going rogue!"

"I certainly agree to the last part, sugar," Rogue said as the two of them got in the elevator.

The two girls reached the main floor and got out. As they were about to round the corner, Rogue stopped them.

"What?" Kitty asked, but Rogue put her hand over Kitty's mouth to silence her. Rogue just pointed towards the door.

Kitty was shocked. It was one of Magneto's Acolytes talking to the Professor! She knew it was the card-throwing one. But she didn't know why he would be here. Didn't he have Magneto-ish things to do, she thought to herself. Like kicking puppies or taking candy from babies.

Rogue turned to Kitty and mouthed "It's Gambit! Follow him!" Kitty nodded and the two of them watched the Professor lead his guest to his office. Rogue and Kitty quietly followed them and stood outside Professor Xavier's office. The doors were closed, but they could still make out anything that was said from inside.

"Remy, please, sit down," they heard the Professor say.

"Thank you, Charles," Remy responded. "I must say you have a much fancier base of operations than Magneto. I see you've even got a bowl of candy. Magneto doesn't even bother to lay out the nice rug."

"On that topic, you mentioned that you have a message from Magneto," the Professor said.

"It's a long and complicated story, but I think I finally know all the details."

"So this message is a story?"

"Exactly," said Remy. "It's the story of Kurt Wagner."

"And why exactly does Magneto know Kurt's history?" asked Professor Xavier, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

"He's had his hand in shaping it, of course. And I'll get to all that soon."

"So why tell us now?"

Remy chuckled. "Though Magneto doesn't like talking about his past mistakes, he'll gladly divulge that information provided it's for the good of mutantkind, which stopping this Shadow King will certainly accomplish. After all, he knew about this 'fall of humanity' business for a while now and then Wanda let him know that now you X-Men are involved. So he figured now would be a good time to help you out in saving the world. And if you all save humanity from another apocalypse, then mutantkind gets to live another day. So here we are. You want to know the truth, and Magneto's willing to tell you. Wonderful how that all works out, isn't it?"

"And why are you the one telling me this? Where is Magneto?"

"As per usual for our master of magnetism, Magneto is very busy at the moment. He's working on something that will be of much help for this whole Operation: No More Shadow King. In the meantime, I get the responsibility of talking to you X-Men. Of course, that job could have gone to the ever-eloquent Sabretooth, but we all know much more charming I am. And well-groomed, of course…"

"Alright then," the Professor said. "Then why don't we start at the beginning?"

"The very beginning." Remy nodded and took a deep breath. "Thousands of years ago, the Earth was also home to a people known as demons. And like all of history when two groups are different, these demons didn't really get along with humans. Tired of having to share the world with others unlike themselves, the demons banded together under the rule of the Shadow King. His reign led to a full-blown war between humans and demons. It was chaos. Tens of thousands dead on both side. The Earth itself slowly being destroyed in war. Very nasty stuff, from what I'm told. But after so many years of warfare, the Shadow King was eventually defeated in battle by an unknown warrior who wielded a weapon known as the Soul Sword. He and all demons were banished to another dimension. The humans were victorious and got to keep the planet as their own.

"But that's only the first part of the story. See, the Shadow King wasn't all that keen on losing and being banished to another dimension. So, he plotted a way out. He sought his freedom. The Shadow King was able to break the walls of the dimensions by using almost all of his powers. The dimension walls cracked for just a split-second, and he was able to send his son and his six servants to Earth. But because inter-dimensional travel isn't supposed to be possible, it took many, many years for those seven to get here. When they finally did, they lost their corporal form and only made it as spirits. These spirits then found humans, specifically women, and bonded with them," Remy said.

"So this Shadow King sent his son and six other demon spirits to Earth which resulted in the impregnation of seven human women?" the Professor asked with an air of disbelief.

"Yup. Think of it like an immaculate conception. Only on the other end of the spiritual spectrum. 'Infernal conception', maybe?"

"Honestly, this sounds all rather absurd. Furthermore, I fail to see how Kurt is related to any of this 'Shadow King' story."

Remy shrugged. "Magneto told me that most of this information is beyond mere legends. Only fragments of myths exist. He admitted that some of that history was just his own assumptions. Regardless, he said to assume what he found to be true, as it best explains where I'm going with this. Also, this is where we get to Kurt.

"Our lady Mystique happened to be one of those seven women the demon souls bonded with. Specifically, the King's son's soul," Remy continued. "Always the insecure mother-type, Mystique believed the pregnancy to be a miracle. Of course, Magneto had doubts.

"Not exactly a devout Christian," Remy said as Kitty silently laughed, "Magneto did some research into Mystique's pregnancy. And he came to doubt the integrity behind it all. Using science that's way above my head, he found that her child had unknown DNA. As in 'species unknown'. Realizing that the child was not just a mere mutant, Magneto decided to do what some may call 'unethical'…"

"Genetic experimentation?" Charles asked.

Remy nodded. "Mystique didn't exactly agree to his views. She thought he was a madman going on about this 'demon' thing, not that I can blame her. She would not let Magneto come anywhere near her or her unborn child. She refused to accept that she was carrying a demon child and promised to have her child no matter what. Because Magneto found her to have a rather uncompromising stance towards his recommendations, he decided to take matters into his own hands before Mystique would be unable to interfere.

"Eventually, Magneto managed to drug Mystique and knock her out, ensuring the least amount of resistance. He genetically experimented on the baby to alter the demon part of the child, essentially trying to make him completely human. Magneto was able to successfully remove any mental traces of the demon's spirit, meaning the kid wouldn't be born thinking he was a demon. No more demon memory. But the experimentation was interrupted when Mystique awoke and subsequently freaked out. She incorrectly assumed Magneto was behind her child's monster appearance and fled. Magneto, not exactly great at making apologies, decided to keep the truth from her and only admitted to the genetic experimentation. He knew that as long as the child had no recollection that he was a demon, there was no need to press the issue any further. So Mystique blamed him for turning her child into a monster and fled. And the rest of the story of Mystique and Kurt I'm sure you know all too well."

"Excellent," Charles said sarcastically. "Just excellent. Magneto's stubbornness and secrecy entirely resulted in the crisis that is now at hand. Why is it that his philosophy of the ends justifying the means always results in chaos?"

Remy shrugged. "Hey, I'm not praising or defending Magneto. I'm not paid to do that. I'm just the message-man."

"Yes, and I thank you for letting us know. Hopefully, with this information, we are now one step closer to finding Kurt and stopping this 'fall of humanity'."

"And as I said earlier, Magneto is currently working on a project that will help us. I assume it will be ready very soon."

"What kind of project are we talking about?" Charles inquired.

"It's top-secret. Even I don't know," Remy replied. "If you want to know, you'll have to ask him yourself. All I know is that he thinks you should concentrate on finding Kurt."

"I am," the Professor said. "But it has been very difficult and I have not yet been able to locate Kurt's location."

Remy stood up. "I do have some information on the demons for Hank McCoy. I assume he's in the library, so if you don't mind, I'll be heading off right about now…"

"Please be careful not to hit Rogue or Kitty on your way out," the Professor said.

Both Kitty and Rogue jumped back in shock. "Great…" Rogue muttered as Remy opened the door.

"I didn't expect I'd be lucky enough to see you here today, chérie," Remy said to Rogue. "I really should come by more often."

Rogue rolled her eyes and walked past him, though Kitty could see a faint blush. The Professor turned to the girls. "I thought you'd like to know Logan is doing fine and will be happy to see both of you in the Danger Room bright and early for the next month. Don't worry, he's calmed down and Ororo has managed to talk him out of killing you."

Rogue groaned. "But Professor, we want to help you look for Kurt. We're tired of just sitting around."

"I know, but right now it is best if both of you rest," Charles replied.

"Professor," Kitty said as she walked up next to Rogue. "As a part of the X-Men, I've not only learned to control my powers and to use them to help mankind, but I've learned the value of a team. Kurt is a part of the X-Men team. Our team. Our family. I can't just do nothing while he's in trouble. Kurt means very much to me; he means very much to all of us X-Men. I want to help find and rescue Kurt, and I won't take 'no' for an answer." She noticed that the other three were looking at her in shock. "I mean… please, Professor! Won't you let me help him?" she said as she made her best puppy face.

The Professor smirked. "Alright, you two can help the others in the library. This does not rule out any of your extra Danger Room sessions with Logan, however."

Kitty and Rogue high-fived. Remy rolled his eyes. "You X-Men are crazy…" he said to himself.

"Kitty, Rogue, why don't you two lead our guest to the library? I have some other business to attend to. I would like to see if Forge's upgrades to Cerebro prove to be of any further help," Charles said.

The two girls nodded and led Remy down the hall. "So what kind of information do you have for Dr. McCoy?" Rogue asked.

"Oh, just some names and bios. Hopefully, it'll be enough to keep us from falling too far behind," he responded.

"You seem to enjoy yourself when you're here," Rogue stated almost matter-of-factly.

"I do enjoy the company," Remy said with a smile.

"Then why don't you join us? The X-Men, I mean." Rogue sounded very serious, and Kitty was afraid to say anything.

Remy shrugged his shoulders. "I can't really do that at this moment…" Kitty could see Rogue's posture falter slightly. "Of course, maybe after this mission, I can see if being an X-Men offers more benefits…"

Rogue rolled her eyes as she opened the door to the library. "Whatever," she said in an unconvincing voice. "But for now, let's concentrate on finding my brother."

* * *

"Are we there yet? I'm tired," Behemot muttered.

"I'm hungry. How far?" Shammah added.

"We're almost there," Ishboshet responded without any trace of sympathy.

The trip to meet the Shadow King was almost done. Though Kurt did not speak for the entirety of the walk, the others had not stayed very silent. Shammah kept trying to get the others to agree to a lunch break, which tended to annoy Livyatan. Behemot complained that she was tired, which also angered Livyatan. This resulted in Livyatan yelling at the others almost constantly. Eleazar could not help but laugh at how stupid everyone was acting, while Ziz did her best to ignore Livyatan and not so subtly flirt with the other guys and even Kurt. Ishboshet remained relatively calm and collected, only talking when he needed to. Kurt could tell that his patience was wearing thin though, and most likely hoped they would arrive very soon.

They had already walked for about an hour and took a small break, but then proceeded to make their way into some cave. Blindfolded and thus not being able to see, Kurt had tripped twice, though Shammah managed to catch him before he fell.

The deeper they went into the cave, the more he wished he could leave. The air felt heavy and uninviting. Kurt felt as though his entire body was rejecting the aura of the location, but he was forced to continue going. The blindfold prevented him from seeing anything and therefore left him unable to teleport away. He had already tried to teleport to any location he could recall off the top of his head, but realized that those places must be further than his teleporting range.

Suddenly, they stopped walking. "We're here," Ishboshet announced.

Someone pulled off Kurt's blindfold and he looked at where they had taken him. He was definitely in some cave, but that was only the beginning of it. They must have been in a mountain as he could see walls of earth and stone stretching upwards for stories. The seven of them were all standing at the edge of some cliff. Kurt could not see anything beyond the edge of the cliff, even with his enhanced night vision.

"He is down there, waiting for you, my Prince. He will appear to you," Ishboshet said.

Kurt swallowed nervously and looked at his captors. He knew that there would be no way for him to escape. And he knew that if he refused to move, they would just force him. Accepting the circumstances, Kurt nodded.

"On the right, there is a pathway," Eleazar said.

"It will lead you to him," said Livyatan.

"He will speak to you, and you will regain your memories," Ziz said. "Then, you will know how to free him before the next full moon sets."

"Go now, my Prince," Ishboshet said with a tone of finality. "He is waiting."

Kurt walked away and headed down the path. He was just barely able to make out where he could safely step. He walked for what seemed like minutes on that slowly descending path until he finally reached the floor at the bottom. The ground was cold and uneven, and it was so very dark down there. Everything about it felt wrong.

Kurt did not see or hear anything, and he was thinking that maybe there was nothing really there at all. But then, suddenly, a small flash of light illuminated the area around Kurt. He was soon staring at crack in the space itself, a tiny portal opening, similar to the ones that Forge's machines had created. The crack in space was small, no bigger than a foot in diameter, and it emitted a fiery glow.

And then, he saw a pair of glowing white eyes. They looked somewhat like his own, but so much brighter. Looking into them was hypnotizing; the eyes conveyed the feelings of anger, rage, power, and destruction. Kurt's body started to shake, and he collapsed to his knees. Kurt knew that he had seen these eyes before, perhaps in a dream…

"MY SON…" the ancient voice bellowed. It came from the crack, as Kurt feared, from whoever that pair of eyes belonged to.

"MY SON…" it moaned again.

Before he knew it, Kurt had responded. "Yes," he whispered.

"YOU HAVE RETURNED…"

"Yes," Kurt whispered again.

"I HAVE WAITED… FOR TOO LONG…"

Kurt nodded. He was not exactly sure why his body was behaving as it was. All he could think of was who was in that other dimension and how much he wanted this portal to close.

"WHY… WHY ARE YOU SO SILENT…"

"I… I don't know…" Kurt stammered.

"YOU DO NOT KNOW… OR… YOU DO NOT REMEMBER…"

"I… I…" Kurt was having trouble speaking.

"DO YOU REMEMBER ME…"

"You are… the Shadow King," Kurt said, almost as if he had asked it.

The ancient voice laughed. The sound echoed throughout the entire mountain. Kurt shivered and fell. He was now on his hands and knees.

"Please…" he whispered. "Please stop." He was holding back tears, his entire body shaking.

"WHAT IS MY NAME…"

"I don't know."

"TELL ME… WHAT IS MY NAME…"

"Azazel." The name had escaped his mouth without him really realizing it had happened. "You are Azazel, the Shadow King."

The ground shook and the air grew heavier. Kurt could see the white eyes flasher brighter just for an instant. "YES… YES…"

Kurt was so confused. He did not know why he had said what he did. But he also felt as if he already knew that name. It was as if something in him knew it all along, almost as if he had simply forgot.

"MY SON… YOU MUST SET ME FREE… BEFORE THE NEXT FULL MOON SETS…"

Kurt closed his eyes. He did not want to hear anymore.

"YOU ARE SO CLOSE TO REMEMBERING… THEN YOU CAN GIVE ME MY FREEDOM… YOU MUST REMEMBER…"

Kurt's body felt as if it were on fire. His tail kept thrashing about, and he could not help but grasp at the ground beneath him.

"I WILL RESTORE YOUR MEMORIES… MY SON…"

Kurt opened his eyes and stared at the white eyes again. He felt as if the figure inside was burning the information into Kurt's eyes. The figure's eyes then closed, and just as quickly opened again. They were now brighter than ever.

"TELL ME… WHAT IS YOUR NAME…"

It was as if time itself had stopped. Kurt could think of nothing. He could hear his heart beating rapidly. He could feel the sweat on his forehead. He could sense his whole body tightening in fear.

"YOUR NAME… MY SON… TELL ME YOUR NAME…"

And then, it was like a flame in Kurt's mind was extinguished. Suddenly, he knew. In fact, he had always known. He knew who he was. He could now remember.

"YOUR NAME…"

"Avshalom," he stated without any emotion. "I am Avshalom, the Shadow Prince."

The ancient voice erupted into laughter, and dark tendrils of shadows shot out of the portal. They quickly surrounded Kurt and engulfed him in darkness. After a few seconds, the darkness receded into Kurt's shadow. Kurt finally stood, now clothed in a black cloak similar to the ones the other six demons were wearing. The ancient voice continued to laugh as the portal closed.

He teleported back to the top of the cliff and glared at the six demons. "Is it really you, my Prince?" asked Ishboshet.

Darkness extended from the shadows and engulfed all of them. A tendril of darkness shot out towards Ishboshet, stopping just centimeters from piercing his throat.

"Of course it's me," he stated as he smirked. He allowed the darkness to recede back into the shadows and Ishboshet relaxed.

The six demons immediately bowed. "All hail the return of the Shadow Prince."

"You have regained your memories. What do you remember, my Prince?" asked Ishboshet.

Avshalom smiled a dark smile. "The secret to freeing my father."

* * *

A beeping sound chirped. Magneto closed his fist and a lever on the other side of the room shifted. The screen turned on and Remy's face appeared. "Magneto?"

"Yes, Gambit?" Magneto replied without looking.

"Professor Xavier and the X-Men would like to talk with you."

Magneto turned to face the computer screen. "I thought I deliberately told you that I was busy."

"When the situation concerns one of my students, Erik," Professor Xavier said, "I believe that it is always best when we can talk without any interruptions."

"Charles…" Magneto muttered.

"Erik," Professor Xavier responded coolly.

Magneto sighed. He magnetically levitated himself over to the computer screen. "I believe that I have already told you what was important to know. Therefore, I assume you managed to unearth something rather interesting and want to share that information with me. Am I correct?"

Charles nodded. "Why don't we go over what we know? What both of us know?"

"Agreed. Though let us avoid going over Kurt's birth story again. I don't feel like hearing about my morally ambiguous actions, especially not with the high and mighty Charles Xavier there to provide commentary."

Charles moved a bit further from the screen, revealing the rest of the X-Men near him in the library. He turned to Hank. "Hank, if you would please."

"Ah yes, I thought it would be best to start by going over who these demons are. So does everyone know who they're going to be talking about? Yes? Good. Alright, Piotr, you can start," said Hank.

"The first demon is Behemot, also known as Sloth's Zenith. According to the legends we've gone over, Behemot has the power to grow in size. Logan confirmed that she grew to about fifteen feet during their battle, and she stated she was only at a quarter of her max size. So we can assume she can grow to sixty feet tall. Logan also said that her physical defenses and strength were increased exponentially while she was larger," Piotr said.

Bobby coughed into his hand and took a step forward. He did a quick look around to make sure everyone was paying attention to him and then smirked. "Okay. The next demon is Shammah. His title is Gluttony's Corrosion. We can't really confirm any of his powers since we didn't see him use any, but the legends state his stomach acids are powerful enough to destroy anything. I'd expect some kind of an acid spit assault when confronting him. Sounds fun… Killer vomit…"

"Yay, my turn," Rogue said sarcastically. "Another of the demon's that follows Kurt is Livyatan, the jealous and annoying one. Also called Envy's Wax, she has the ability to turn into some rubber-like substance. She can stretch her body and even reshape it. We've seen her both whip and slice, and she can easily handle multiple opponents at once."

"The fourth demon is Eleazar," Kitty stated. "Like Shammah, we've never actually seen him use his powers. However, we found out that his powers are some kind of mind control over animals. We read that he can, like, summon and control all kinds of beasts to do his biddings. I guess that's how he got his title, Greed's Collar. Okay, your turn, Mr. Logan."

Logan looked at Kitty and grunted, obviously still upset about the wall incident earlier that day. "Ziz, also called Lust's Fragrance, has the ability to turn her body into gases and smokes. From what I caught off of her scent and what we saw her do, she can transform into a knock-out gas. Though she'll probably be able to turn into more. All in all, she'll be a tough one to bring down."

"The last demon serving the Shadow King is named Ishboshet, who also goes by Wrath's Burden," Ororo began. "From what we found in the myths, he has the power of gravity manipulation. Logan, Rogue, and Kitty can attest to seeing him earlier use those powers to keep his foes at bay. I believe he may have some authority over the other five, and, though we're not certain, he does seem to be the most powerful out of the servants."

"Thank you, Ororo," Hank said. "Lastly, we're going to go over both the Shadow King and his son, the Shadow Prince. The Shadow King, whose real name is Azazel, is the ruler of the demons and currently resides in another dimension. From what I've gathered, it appears that he has control over darkness, even able to bring shadows into physical form. He is described as being extremely powerful, but I assume that he is mostly powerless at the moment, having used up most of his strength in sending the other seven to Earth.

"Which brings us to Kurt, Pride's Gateway. It looks like Kurt is the Shadow Prince, Avshalom. It is best to assume that the demons are trying to get Kurt to regain his memories as Avshalom, so that they can find the secret to freeing the Shadow King. As you know, he has the power to teleport. More precisely, it's a form of warping through dimensions. This may have been a key in how the Shadow King was able to send the seven of them to our dimension, somehow amplifying his son's powers by bestowing his own. Therefore, I assume that Avshalom has both his own teleporting powers and also the Shadow King's powers as well. If this is true, then Avshalom is, without a doubt, the most powerful demon we may come into contact with. And according to what I've read, if Kurt has become Avshalom, then he will no longer see us as his friends, but as enemies. If we fight him, he will show us no mercy."

Magneto nodded. "While this information will be quite helpful in battle against these demons, it is still not the most important matter at hand. The information you should have been trying to find would have been how to stop the Shadow Prince from freeing the Shadow King. But, no, instead I get to hear you X-men read me some angsty teen profiles you pulled off of their Facebooks."

Remy chuckled. "Actually, boss, we did manage to find something that may help us stop the Shadow King."

"By combing through countless texts, we know two important details on how the Shadow King was imprisoned," Charles started. "The first is that he was defeated by the Soul Sword."

"I already knew that, Charles. And I have been taking the necessary measures," Magneto stated. "In fact, the machine I just finished will be able to locate the Soul Sword for us."

"Fascinating, Erik. I did think that what you were building was a kind of power amplifier. It does look like my Cerebro in design, at least, in some aspects."

"Yes. My Cyberno functions very similarly. With it, I can detect any materials with magnetic properties. I do not think it will be quite as useful as Cerebro in general, but it will be essential to locating the Soul Sword."

"Good," Charles said. "I had assumed that you already knew this detail of how to defeat the Shadow King and was thus working on a way to find the Soul Sword. It seems that I have assumed correctly."

Magneto groaned. "Enough of this, Charles. Tell me this other important detail or else you and your X-Men will only have wasted my valuable time."

"Yes, yes, Erik," said Charles. "Well, we know that the Soul Sword was what defeated the Shadow King. More precisely, the blade has magical properties that allow it to essentially 'cut' through the fabric of our dimension. I believe this was how the Shadow King's unknown foe managed to trap the Shadow King in another dimension."

"Charles, all this repetitive nonsense-"

"But more importantly, Erik, based on what we've learned, the Soul Sword can only temporarily distort dimensional ties. Thus, the Soul Sword alone could not keep the Shadow King sealed in another dimension as its powers are only temporary. Like how Kurt teleports, one cannot travel to the other dimension and just stay there without returning back to this one. Therefore, I believe that there must have been a secondary item that boosted the Soul Sword's powers, making it able to permanently trap the Shadow King."

Magneto raised his eyebrows in shock. "Another item?"

"Yes, Erik. An enhancer, of sorts."

"You truly believe this?" Magneto asked.

Hank answered. "We only have an assumption of what it may be. Unlike the Soul Sword, this item was never outright mentioned in any of the texts. Therefore, I only have an educated guess." Hank took a deep breath. "This item would have had to boost the Soul Sword's powers but then absorb all of the cross-dimensional energy backlash. Thus, that would have greatly destroyed the landscape. I am not sure what exactly it would be, but I think I may know where it is."

Magneto scoffed. "Really? Where?"

Hank smirked. "The Grand Canyon."

Charles nodded. "There is only one way to know any of this. And I think the answer lies in your Cyberno."

Magneto turned away from the computer screen and walked towards Cyberno. "Why don't we see just what this hunk of junk can do." He took off his helmet and placed Cyberno's headset on. He closed his eyes on focused his magnetic powers into the machine.

The machine roared to life, now humming with electrical energy. Cyberno's ability to amplify Magneto's powers was incredible, though overwhelming at first. He could sense every scrap of metal, it seemed, in the entire world. Every piece of metal, every electrical device, every material that had magnetic properties. He assumed this was similar to what Charles experienced when he used Cerebro. Magneto focused. He knew he was looking for a sword-shaped object with certain, unique properties and another with similar properties located somewhere in the Grand Canyon.

With Cyberno's help, he easily found the latter of the two objects he was looking for. There was definitely something unusual located in the Grand Canyon. Once he knew exactly where it was, he moved on to the sword. Finding the Soul Sword was more difficult, Magneto had no real idea of where it would be and could only go off of what he knew its magnetic properties were. After searching for a good seven minutes, Magneto finally noticed something in Europe, something was undeniably giving off a unique signature in southern England. Further investigation revealed that the signal was coming from the River Thames. Magneto smirked. He had successfully found both items.

"It works and, yes, you were right," Magneto said as he returned to the computer screen, placing his helmet back on. "I have found the two items. I am sending you their locations now."

"Thank you, Erik."

"If these items are the key to trapping the Shadow King, and it looks like they certainly are, then they may be what free the Shadow King as well. Therefore, I believe that the demons will stop at nothing to find these items," Magneto said.

"I agree," Charles said. "I think this was the secret that Avshalom's memories held, the location of both of these items. So if Kurt really has become the Shadow Prince, then we must get to these items before the demons do. Or else the Shadow King will be set free."

Magneto nodded. "Perhaps I will join you X-Men, just this once," Magneto said calmly. "I have already worked so hard that it would be a shame for me to waste my talents…"

Charles nodded. "Then we should get to work."

"Indeed," replied Magneto. "I will head off to England to retrieve the Soul Sword before the demons can get to it. If you wish to send any of your X-Men to assist me… I would not deny their assistance."

"Then I will get the X-Men ready," Charles said. "Oh, and Erik."

"Yes, Charles?"

"This is a rescue mission. We are working to save Kurt Wagner, not just further the goals of mutantkind. I want you to remember that."

Magneto turned away from the computer screen. "Of course," he replied as he shut the computer off.

* * *

_X-Men!_ Professor Xavier announced to everyone mentally. _Suit up and meet me at the hangar in ten minutes. This will be a mission to rescue Kurt Wagner._

At once, the X-Mansion had come alive. Everyone stopped what they were doing and ran off to their rooms to change. Remy and Forge were the only two who had remained in the communications room, being the only two non-X-Men. Remy was already in uniform and decided to slowly saunter to the hangar. Forge, on the other hand, never had a uniform of any kind.

"Uh… Professor…" Forge began.

"Yes, Forge," Charles replied. "As you are not an official X-Man, I can only ask you to come along and help us."

"Oh, of course I'm going to help you guys rescue Kurt! What kind of a friend would I be if I didn't? But… what I was going to say is… I kind of don't really have a way to suit up. All I've got is my civvies."

"That won't be a problem," said Professor Xavier. "We'll lend you the basic X-Men uniform. Please, follow me."

Forge smiled and let Professor Xavier lead the way.

At the other end of the X-Mansion, everything was much more hectic. Scott and Jean had both already changed and were shouting orders to the others to hurry up. Ray had nearly tripped over Amara when rushing to his room, Rahne almost got lost when trying to maneuver around Sam and Tabitha while simultaneously dodging Piotr and Jubilee, and there where at least seventeen Jamies running around, each doing their own thing.

"Bobby, out of the way!" Kitty shouted as she ran down the hall. Bobby, who could barely walk at all with five Jamies and Roberto surrounding him, merely shrugged in response. Kitty groaned and phased through him. Bobby shuddered as he felt her run through him, but Kitty ignored his reaction and continued to her room.

Kitty phased through her door. Her sudden appearance had shocked Rogue, who was in the process of changing her pants and had thus accidentally fallen off of her bed. "How many times do I have to tell you? Knock or honk or something before you do that!" Rogue shouted at Kitty.

"Sorry," Kitty responded as she headed to her closet. "I forgot…"

"And to think you hassle Kurt for doing basically the same thing whenever he teleports…" Rogue mumbled to herself. She snapped her belt on and adjusted her gloves. Rogue turned to Kitty, who was already changing into her uniform. "Alright, I'm heading out. See you in five." Kitty nonchalantly nodded her head and Rogue left their room.

Rogue ran down the hall, towards the staircase. "Five minutes!" Scott shouted as she ran by. As she made her way to the elevator, she realized she was not the first who managed to change into their X-Men uniform. Both Piotr and Jubilee were already there, waiting for the elevator to arrive. Only a few seconds after getting there, the doors opened and the three of them walked inside.

They finally reached the basement and ran to the hangar. They were greeted by Professor Xavier, Forge, Remy, Logan, Ororo, and Hank. Eventually, the rest of the X-Men made it to the hangar. The only notable entrance was Kitty's, who had phased through the ceiling and landed next to Rogue.

"X-Men," Charles announced. "There will be two teams. One team will be going to the Grand Canyon. You will be searching for an unknown item buried there that is believed to enhance the powers of the Soul Sword. The other team will actually be searching for the Soul Sword in England. It is somewhere in the River Thames. Both teams need to be as efficient as possible to uncover these items, but must also be on their guards in case the demons show up. They will most likely also be searching for these items and are highly dangerous individuals." Professor Xavier took a deep breath and turned to Logan.

"Listen up!" Logan shouted. "Team One will consist of Gambit, Forge, Cyclops, Jean, Rogue, Shadowcat, Colossus, Iceman, and Jubilee. You will be led by Professor Xavier and me. We will be taking the X-Copter."

Hank took a step forward and began to speak. "Team Two will be led by Storm and myself. We will be assisting Magneto, who is scheduled to arrive just after we get there. The team will consist of Cannonball, Boom Boom, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Berzerker, Magma, and Multiple. We will be taking the X-Jet."

"Aww…" Jamie groaned. "Why can't you be on our team, Mr. Logan?"

Logan rolled his eyes. "I can't be on every team, kid."

"The badger's just a popular guy," Tabitha added. Logan just grunted in response.

"X-Men," Professor Xavier said. "This will be our most important mission since our fight with Apocalypse three years ago. Our success is not only vital to saving humanity, but to also save one of our own." He looked at the people who stood in front of him. "Kurt Wagner is like a son to me, just as I am sure he is like a brother to you all. The X-Men are a family, and tonight, we are going to make sure that this family does not lose a member."

And with that, everyone headed to the vehicles that they were assigned to. The entrance down at the end of the runway opened, and within seconds, the X-Jet and the X-Copter flew off.

* * *

"You summoned us, my Prince?" asked Ishboshet.

Avshalom nodded. "I have discovered the secret behind my father's imprisonment. I now know how to free him."

"Please tell us, my Prince," responded Ishboshet.

"There are two parts to freeing my father. The first is acquiring the Soul Sword. The second is to destroy that which enhances it."

"Yes, of course, my Prince," Eleazar said.

"Ziz, Eleazar, Livyatan, Shammah, and Behemot, I want you five to destroy that item. It is somewhere in the Grand Canyon. Normally, I would not need to send so many of you to accomplish such a simple task, but I have a hunch that the X-Men will have figured things out by now. They will most likely try to stop you, but I trust the five of you will be more than a match for the X-Men."

"It will be done, my Prince," Ziz replied.

"Laughable as their attempts may be, I do not want them to interfere with my plans. You will destroy that item at all cost and, if they get in your way, then you will destroy the X-Men as well. Failure is not an option," Avshalom said with a tone of finality.

"Yes, my Prince," said Shammah. "We will obey." With that the five of them turned and quickly left, leaving only Ishboshet and Avshalom in the cave.

Ishboshet looked up. "What will you have me do, my Prince?"

"You and I will retrieve the Soul Sword. I'm putting the highest faith in you, Ishboshet. I will let you single-handedly give me the weapon, taking it from the humans' cold, dead hands if need be," said Avshalom.

"Thank you, my Prince. I will not let you down," replied Ishboshet.

Avshalom placed his hand on Ishboshet's shoulder and the both of them teleported away.

* * *

After a three hour flight, the X-Copter landed in the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

"If the situation wasn't so grim," Iceman said as he looked around, "the scenery would actually be really nice."

"I know," Jubilee replied. "It's beautiful here. Shame we're not going to be able to enjoy the vacation. I'm getting tired of the whole 'Imminent Apocalypse Thursday' thing. Too much Douglas Adams for my tastes. I prefer my planet safe and intact, thank you very much."

"Totally agree with that," Iceman added.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Jubilee said as she pulled out a piece of papers with some notes scribbled on it. "I made a cheat sheet for us in case we run into those demons."

Jean picked it up and read it over. "'Ishboshet (Wrath) equals Isaac Newton equals Gravity'. Really? Are these mnemonics actually supposed to work?"

"You have a better way of remembering who's who?" Jubilee retorted. "Do you know how hard it is to think of mnemonics for names as strange as 'Eleazar'? You're lucky I could come up with anything!"

Jean sighed and then finished reading aloud what Jubilee had written down. "Okay, okay… 'Ziz (Lust) equals Ozone equals Gas'. 'Eleazar (Greed) equals Elephant equals Animals'. 'Livyatan (Envy) equals Liquid equals Wax'. 'Shammah (Gluttony) equals Smorgasbord equals Vomit'. And 'Behemot (Sloth) equals Big equals Size'."

Rogue groaned. "I say 'Rogue equals Rage equals Annoyed'…" she mumbled to herself.

"Time to get serious, kids. This isn't going to be some walk in the park," Wolverine said, making sure everyone was paying attention. Wolverine pointed behind him. "I'll need a few people to head east and search. Another team will do the same but going west. Any volunteers?"

Cyclops stepped forward. "Jean and I will lead a team."

Wolverine nodded. "Sounds good, slim. You and red will go east. You can take… Forge, Jubilee, and Shadowcat. I'll go west with Rogue, Colossus, and Iceman."

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Gambit asked with a biting tone.

Wolverine rolled his eyes. "Not really, gumbo. As one of Magneto's lackeys, the X-Men can't give you any orders." Gambit narrowed his eyes at Wolverine, who shrugged. "But if you were an X-Man… I'd tell you to come with my team."

Gambit smirked and followed Wolverine. Professor Xavier let the others know he would be waiting in the X-Copter for any contact from the X-Men flying to England. The X-Men split up, and Shadowcat ran off to join Cyclops's group. After walking for a few minutes, Jean pulled out a small device. "Forge, are you sure this will work?" she asked. "Looks like it's better at boiling eggs than detecting Soul Sword stuff."

"Chill, dudette. I have a way with technology. That little sensor you have in your hands has the Forge seal of approval. It'll find what we're looking for so long as we're close enough to it."

"And what exactly is the sensor's range for locating what we need to find?" Jubilee asked.

Forge shrugged. "Not exactly sure. Since I don't know the exact properties of the metal we're searching for, the sensor's detection range is kind of small. Probably more than a fifty feet radius but less than one-hundred."

Shadowcat sighed. "Fifty feet does not seem like a big enough detection radius. We could be here all day."

"Let's hope that's not the case," Cyclops said, sensing her frustration at Forge's answer. "Besides, we have Wolverine's team looking too, so we're bound to find it soon."

Shadowcat smiled, knowing that Cyclops was doing his best to keep her from worrying too much. He was trying to be optimistic. She wished that Rogue was with her. Not that there was anything wrong with Jean or Jubilee, but she knew Rogue would understand her feelings more. She guessed that Wolverine had separated the two of them for that reason, hoping to keep them from talking about Kurt's absence. Rogue was probably just as worried about saving Kurt as she was, considering he was her brother and all.

"You know, I've been thinking," Forge started saying. "Why is it that we all have these code names like 'Cyclops' and 'Wolverine', but you're always just 'Jean'? What's up with that?"

Jean sighed. "I don't know… I guess I just never really grew into any code name."

Cyclops chuckled. "There was 'Marvel Girl'…"

"I thought we agreed never to mention that?" Jean said rather annoyed.

"'Marvel Girl'?" Jubilee asked as she laughed. "Are you serious? That's priceless!"

"I was young," Jean said, trying to justify her actions.

"Not that young…" Cyclops added quietly.

Jean turned to him and he coughed awkwardly into his hands. He made an apologetic face and shrugged. "I'm sorry, okay? I was just joking."

Jean sighed. "You're lucky I like you, Scott."

"Believe me," Cyclops said. "I am definitely the lucky one in this relationship."

Shadowcat made gagging noises. "Please don't make out in front of us. It's so gross."

"We're not going to make out," Jean replied quickly, both she and Cyclops slightly red in the face.

"Better not…" Jubilee mumbled.

Forge scratched his head. "Wait a sec… You're Jubilee."

Jubilee had a look of confusion on her face. "Uh… Yeah… No duh… Real on the ball there, Forge."

"No. I mean you're 'Jubilee' both in and out of uniform," he said.

"Yeah…" she said. "Once again, you're deductive skills amaze me. God, you're denser than Bobby, and that's saying something…"

"What I mean is that isn't that weird considering you're supposed to have both a civilian identity and a secret identity?" he asked. "Why are you always 'Jubilee'?"

"Jean's always 'Jean'. Rogue's always 'Rogue'. And Jubilee's always 'Jubilee'," Cyclops stated.

"Yeah, that's just how it is," Shadowcat added. "Leave it at that."

"Also," Jubilee said while crossing her arms, "isn't that a really stupid question considering you're the guy who always goes by 'Forge' no matter what? Where's your civilian and secret identity split, huh?"

"Touché," he said as he thought about it.

Jean shook her head. "Come on, guys. Let's focus on the mission. We can all argue like children after we've found the enhancer."

* * *

As the five of them continued walking eastward, a hawk flew above them. Its amber eye focused on the X-Men. It quickly u-turned and flew towards a cliff. After a few seconds, it landed on a cloaked figure's arm.

Eleazar put his hand on the hawk and petted its head. "Good job," he whispered to the hawk.

"So?" Ziz asked.

"They're already here," Eleazar said. "I don't think they found it just yet, but they're definitely looking for it."

"Let's go now and take them out before they can get to it," Livyatan said.

"No, let's wait for them to find it. Then we can take it from them. Less stress, less mess," Behemot retorted.

Livyatan crossed her arms. "You're just a lazy good-for-nothing, Behemot! What we need is action!"

Ziz put her three-fingered hand up to silence them. "Decision, decisions," she mumbled to herself. "I wonder how Ishboshet deals with this much trouble figuring out what to do while listening to everybody squabble…"

Shammah stretched his tail. "Whatever you decide, Ziz, hurry up," he said. "We can't let them get away with the enhancer."

Ziz shrugged. "You're right. Okay, let's just attack them now. That way if the enhancer is accidentally destroyed in our crossfire, we win. See? I'm a genius."

"It's not that simple, Ziz. There are two groups. Five heading east and four heading west. Shouldn't we split up?" Eleazar asked in an annoyed tone.

"Yes… we should…" she said slowly, as if she was only agreeing with whatever he had said just to shut him up.

Eleazar laughed angrily. "You're so clueless. I should have been left in charge…" he said to himself. "You have no idea how to lead…" Shammah nudged him before he could say anything more.

"Okay then," she said happily, ignoring what Eleazar just said. "Livyatan and Behemot will attack the group on the west. Shammah and I will attack the one on the east. Done and done!"

"What about me?" Eleazar asked angrily.

"You stay on recon duty. While we're keeping those humans busy, you'll be free to find the enhancer," Ziz said.

"No combat?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are you kidding me?"

Ziz narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't want you getting carried away. I'm not stupid. I know that you always overestimate things and lose your self-control. And I don't want this mission to end up like the last one."

Livyatan turned to Ziz. "What?" she shouted. "Are you implying that I messed up when we fought those insignificant humans at the mall? I didn't mess up or make any mistake!"

"Then how do you explain why you lost your cool? Or how you let those 'insignificant humans' beat you?" Behemot asked with a smile.

"They didn't beat me!" Livyatan shouted.

Ziz held up her hand. Livyatan grunted and Eleazar crossed his arms in frustration. Ziz ignored them and looked to the others. "Enough with this idle arguing. We have a job to do, and I do not plan on failing the Prince." The others slowly nodded in response. "Good. Then let's go."

* * *

The metal orb opened and Magneto floated outside. He turned to the many faces looking at him. "Really?" he said. "Did Charles have to send so many of you to annoy me?"

"We'll ignore that and assume you're thankful for our assistance as much as we are thankful for yours," Storm responded.

"You may be essential to finding the Soul Sword, but you'll need us to help defend it if the demons show up," Beast added.

"I believe I can handle any demonic threats perfectly well by myself, though… I appreciate you X-Men taking time out of your busy schedules to assist me," Magneto said. He levitated himself over the river. He saw the full moon above his head and sighed in anger. Magneto raised his hands and the ground trembled slightly and waves could be seen erupting from the river. After a few moments, a black and silver sword rose out of the water.

It was a strange blade, to say the least. It was perfectly symmetrical, and only silver and black. It was shaped somewhat like a scimitar, though its design appeared more alien than Middle Eastern. There were odd curved protrusions and various jewel-like orbs on the hilt. The sword was over two feet long and most likely weighed around ten pounds.

"That was easy," Magneto said to himself as he brought the Soul Sword closer. Just when it was in arm's reach, a black tendril shot out and grabbed the sword.

Shocked, Magneto turned to face who had stolen the Soul Sword. The shadowy appendages carried the weapon to a certain blue-furred, three-fingered hand.

"Much thanks, human," Avshalom said as he held the Soul Sword. "You made reclaiming the Soul Sword very easy." Magneto looked furious, though did not dare to make an action. Like the X-Men, he was perfectly aware that the demons were very powerful and any stupid actions would be quickly punished.

"Kurt…" Storm whispered. However, Avshalom ignored her and he turned to Ishboshet.

"Take care of these human pests." There was no hint of Kurt Wagner's soul in his voice, no compassion at all. "Do not disappoint me."

Ishboshet bowed. "As you wish, my Prince."

He turned to face the mutants. He extended his arm towards them and released a wave of gravitational force. Acting quickly, Magneto magnetically pulled a sheet of metal to block the force. But the wave shattered the sheet of metal into tiny fragments. Magneto magnetically pulled several bumpers off of nearby cars. The reshaped them into spears and flung them at Ishboshet. "Don't you know that electromagnetism is stronger than gravity?" Magneto commented with a smile.

Ishboshet placed both hands on the ground and created a wall of gravitational energy in front of him. As soon as the metal projectiles were inches from spearing him, they suddenly contorted under the great stress and quickly fell to the ground. He smirked and turned to Magneto. "Then I guess I'm just stronger than you."

Storm stepped in front of Magneto. "Enough with the ego trip, gentlemen. X-Men, stop them and reclaim that sword." She charged her hand with electrical energy and shot a bolt of lightning at Ishboshet. As it arced towards him, he pointed his left arm away from him and created a sphere of gravity. The bolt of lightning curved away before hitting Ishboshet and instead was sent in the direction of where he pointed.

Ishboshet let loose a sigh of relief. He was only able to barely avoid the attack and he could feel the heat of the singed air around him. "All things are affected by gravity, human. Even light."

"But it looks like it took a lot out of you," Beast replied, eying Ishboshet's current state of exhaustion.

Ishboshet ignored the comment and sent another wave of gravitational force at them. The X-Men dodged the attacked as it impacted with the ground, releasing a cloud of dust into the air. As the air cleared, Ishboshet was in the air. He landed next to Storm and kicked her hard in the side. Storm collapsed to the ground in pain.

Ishboshet turned around and saw Beast rushing at him, attempting to tackle him. Ishboshet quickly grabbed Beast's left leg with his tail and flung him off. But a horde of Multiples then immediately jumped on Ishboshet. He collapsed to his knees, but kept his composure. Ishboshet then crossed his arms and flung the Multiples off with a blast of gravity.

As he got back up, Sunspot ran at him and delivered a powerful uppercut to Ishboshet's stomach. He was flung into the air like a limp ragdoll, and saw Cannonball shooting down from the sky right at him. As Cannonball collided into Ishboshet, Ishboshet locked Cannonball's arm behind him, keeping Cannonball from moving or freeing himself. Ishboshet then used his powers to cause Cannonball to fall to the ground at a breakneck speed. Unable to run away in time, the explosion from the fall caught Sunspot as well. Ishboshet slowly emerged from the crater, standing over the unconscious bodies of Sunspot and Cannonball.

Before he could react, Wolfsbane, in her wolf transformation, snuck up behind Ishboshet and leapt onto his back. He fell to one knee, but quickly grabbed her and threw away. Ishboshet stood up and saw sparks of electricity shoot by his ear. Berzerker was launching bolts of electricity at Ishboshet. One of Berzerker's electrical blasts grazed Ishboshet's right shoulder. Staggering backwards a few steps, Ishboshet looked at Avshalom to see his response. Avshalom merely stared back with a look devoid of any sympathy. Ishboshet understood that this meant his prince was disappointed that he was not winning the fight yet. Ishboshet only nodded in response to Avshalom's glare.

He then grabbed the ground and sent waves of energy into it. The ground under the X-Men gave way and collapsed beneath them. As Wolfsbane and Berzerker fell, Ishboshet saw Boom Boom and Magma behind him. Boom Boom was throwing energy explosives while Magma let loose a stream of fire that blazed through the air. Ishboshet neatly dodged the explosives and flames and then leapt behind a car. He pointed his arms at it and blasted it with gravitational force, launching the car right at the X-Men. Magma tried to block it with a burst of lava, but the car exploded on impact with the flames. Magma and Boom Boom were sent sailing backwards, crashing into the ground as they landed.

But Ishboshet had little time to rest as Beast came back into view. He charged at Ishboshet with all of his might, knocked Ishboshet backwards, sliding along the ground and eventually slamming into a car. As he struggled to get up, he saw Magneto using his powers to contort and bend the car around Ishboshet. The metal wrapped around his body and pinned him down. Magneto pulled his hands closed and the metal car forced Ishboshet's body to the ground. Ishboshet slowly looked up and saw Storm, who had just managed to get back up on her feet, summoning clouds in the sky. Rain started to fall and the clouds started to spark. Soon, a giant lightning bolt flashed through the sky and crashed down on top of Ishboshet.

He screamed in rage as his body took more pain. In his mind, he knew Avshalom was disappointed he was being beaten like this. In immense pain and now with little energy, Ishboshet concentrated and used his remaining strength to release a massive wave of gravitational force all around him. It appeared as if time itself was slowing down, as the very space around Ishboshet bent and warped due to his powers. He shouted as he blasted the car off of his body and sent the wave of gravity at the X-Men.

Ishboshet's energy force pulsed through the air. Everything it touched was immediately blasted in the opposite direction. The gravity knocked Magneto out of the sky and sent all of the X-Men flying. As they fell to the ground defeated, Ishboshet breathed heavily. He had managed to sneak out a win at the very end, but it had cost him dearly. His eyesight grew blurry and he knew he was sweating profusely. He had trouble staying focused, as there was no strength in his body anymore. After a few moments, Ishboshet collapsed in exhaustion, nearly unconscious.

Avshalom closed his eyes in displeasure. "Look at yourself. Pathetic. You could not even handle these ten or so weak human mutants without tiring yourself out?" he said to Ishboshet. "Why do I bother relying on you? I expected more out of you, Ishboshet… I am not pleased with your failure. Not pleased at all."

Avshalom turned away from his fallen servant and held the Soul Sword out in front of him. He smiled as he saw his reflection on the blade. "Very soon, father. Once I know my other servants have succeeded in destroying the other item, I will set you free."

He turned around and took a few steps forward before he realized there was someone standing in front of him. He smirked once he realized who it was. "Wonderful. I wasn't expecting you here, but I can make do. Are you going to add to the family reunion, too?"

Mystique looked into the eyes of her son and returned the false smile. "Indeed. Mommy's back, and you've been a bad boy."

Avshalom laughed as the shadows surrounded him. He pointed the blade at her. "I can spare you a few words, mother. But let's not keep father waiting too long now…"

* * *

"Far out!" Forge exclaimed as he looked at his device. "We finally picked up something!"

"Where?" Cyclops asked.

Forge pointed straight down. "A good distance right below us."

"Define 'good distance'," Jean said.

"No can do. That's as exact as I can be," Forge replied.

"Alright then, stand back," Cyclops said as he kept the other X-Men behind him. "I'm going to use my optic blasts to dig into the ground."

"No! Stop!" Jubilee interrupted before he could do anything. "You may blast out too much and accidentally destroy what we're looking for!"

Cyclops thought for a moment and nodded. "You're right. We can't risk destroying it. Maybe Jean can telekinetically pull it out of the ground?"

She shook her head. "I can only do that if I know what and where it is exactly."

"Any other good ideas?" Jubilee asked.

"I've got one," Shadowcat said quietly. "I can phase through the earth, grab the item, and phase back."

Cyclops shook his head. "I don't like that. It's risky. You don't know how far down the enhancer is. Even if you did, the distance might be too far for you to make it back safely. I don't want you traveling fifty feet down into the earth."

"We don't have any other option! Not unless Forge can build a magnet machine on the fly!"

The four X-Men looked at Forge, who awkwardly coughed. "Uh… unless you guys happen to have a bunch of scrap metal and wires laying around… no… I can't…"

"See? Now let me go get that enhancer. I want to save Kurt. Don't you?" she asked.

Cyclops sighed. "Fine! But do it fast! And if you're down there for longer than two minutes, I'm having Jean pull you out of there!"

Shadowcat nodded and mentally prepared herself. Forge gave her a weak thumbs up to try to cheer her up. She awkwardly smiled and took a deep breath. She made herself become intangible and let herself fall downwards.

The descent was uncomfortable, to say the least. She couldn't see anything and had no real idea of when exactly she would arrive at where she needed to go. Just when she was about to give up, she felt a small metallic item go through her. She stopped her downwards movement and grabbed the item. With all of her remaining might, Shadowcat propelled herself back up to the surface. She could barely hold her breath any longer by the time she resurfaced, but she had made it. After taking a few deep breaths she triumphantly held up the enhancer. "Got it," she said slowly.

She handed the small item to Forge. "Fascinating," he said as he eyed it. It looked somewhat like a mostly silver computer chip, though it was only a few centimeters large and cubically shaped. There were tiny black circuit-like markings throughout its exterior. "Pre-history: one. Microsoft: zero."

"You mean Apple," Jubilee added.

"That's it? That's the enhancer thing?" Jean asked.

Forge nodded. "Yup. This, boys and girls, is it."

"We should bring it back to the Professor immediately," Cyclops said. "Jean, can you let him know that we found it?"

"I already did," she replied.

"Then let's head back," Cyclops said.

"Hold on a bit," Forge said as he transformed his finger into a metallic tool. "I was thinking… what would happen if I…"

The instant his tool-like finger touched the surface of the enhancer, it started to glow. It then leapt out of Forge's hands. Shadowcat caught it before it could fall, but she feel it twist and turn in her cupped hands.

"What did you do?" she angrily asked him. But Forge was lost for words.

"Self is powering up. Self is 43.835% charged. Please allow self to charge further."

"What?" Shadowcat asked. She could not figure out who said that. Its voice was far different than anyone else's, very robotic even. After she saw that everyone was looking at her equally dumbfounded, she deduced that it wasn't anyone around her who had said it. She nervously looked down at her hands and realized it was the Soul Sword's enhancer that had just spoken. She slowly opened her hands and let more sunlight shine on it. After a few more seconds, the small enhancer stopped fidgeting and ceased glowing. However, she could feel its insides quietly whirring.

"Charging complete. Recalibrating internal clock. Time gap has been measured to be 5307.161 years. Explain to self current situation regarding self's status."

Nobody dared to say anything. The small cube continued to wait for a few more moments before repeating what it had just said.

After it repeated itself a third time, Cyclops finally decided to say something. "We believe you're a part of the Soul Sword that was separated and buried thousands of years ago. An enhancer, or something like that… And now… you're talking…"

"Affirmative," the small cube replied. "Self assumed that self would have remained lost forever. Status has changed. Why has self been unearthed now? Explain."

"It's… complicated…" Cyclops started to say. "But what exactly are you, anyways?"

"Self is a Technarch of the planet Kvch. Self's name translates into English as 'Warlock'."

But before he could finish his explanation, a loud hawk's cry could be heard. Shadowcat had barely enough time to render herself intangible as the hawk flew right through her, trying to grab the enhancer from her hand. The hawk circled around and flew at her again. She was more than prepared and again successfully evaded the hawk's attempt to take Warlock from her grasp. Annoyed with its failure, the hawk flew back to its master. The X-Men turned to face their opponents, who were now standing a mere twenty feet from them.

* * *

"You tried, Eleazar. So close," Ziz said. "I guess we're just going to have to resort to violence. Pity, really…"

"The demons…" Jean said to herself.

Shammah stretched his arms and sighed. "Nothing like warm-up exercises before the real thing."

Eleazar chuckled and turned to Ziz. "Any specific orders?" he asked.

She nodded. "Just as I'm having Behemot and Livyatan take out those other humans on the west side, Shammah and I will make quick work of this group."

"And that leaves me free to steal the enhancer from the girl," Eleazar said with a grin. "A good old chase, then?"

"See?" she happily replied. "I didn't forget about you. I knew you'd want the most important part. So it's all yours."

Eleazar laughed. "Perfect." He snapped his fingers and three dogs and another bird appeared beside him. From what Shadowcat could see, he was controlling in total at least a red-tailed hawk, a common raven, a German shepherd, a greyhound, and even a coyote.

Cyclops quickly glanced at Shadowcat. "Take the enhancer and get out of here. We'll keep them busy." She nodded and took off. Eleazar took a few steps forward, but Cyclops fired an optic blast at the ground to hold him off. Cyclops managed to keep Eleazar from advancing for a few more seconds until Eleazar was finally able to get free from Cyclops' assault. But by the time Eleazar was on Shadowcat's trail, he was a good distance from catching up to her. He and his beasts continued to pursue her nevertheless, leaving Ziz and Shammah to deal with the remaining X-Men.

Forge quickly transformed his arm into a mechanical cannon and fired a blast energized plasma at Ziz. She smirked and turned into a gas as the beam went through her, leaving her perfectly unharmed. Cyclops tried a similar move by firing an optic beam at her, but it had equally no effect. She laughed as she reformed into her solid form and then ran at the two boys.

Shammah took in a deep breath of air and let his mouth fill with his stomach acids. He then aimed at Jean and spit the contents at her. Thinking fast, she telekinetically lifted a boulder to block the attack. The acid nearly instantly ate through the rock, but it had at least stopped the attack from hitting the X-Men. Crumbling to pebbles, Jubilee took the opportunity to shoot several fireworks at Shammah. He jumped backwards to dodge the explosions, but he managed to catch one firework in his mouth. The two X-Men heard a small, muffled explosion and smoke emitting from Shammah's mouth, but it looked as if it had no effect on him at all.

"Nothing?" Jubilee said in disbelief.

Shammah laughed at her. He jumped into the air and spit acid at them, creating a deadly volley of rain. "Take that!"

Jean immediately used her telekinesis to pull herself and Jubilee backwards, just outside of the range of Shammah's attack. She was lucky she had acted in time, as the ground in front of them was now a pool of melted rocks and dirt.

Meanwhile, Cyclops and Forge were dealing with Ziz's knock-out gas transformation. She easily flew at them, knowing that in this form she was immune to any physical attack. Acting on instinct, Forge transformed his arm into a fan and pointed it at her. His arm started to gyrate and he blew a gust of wind at her. Slowly getting pushed back in her gas form, she rematerialized to regain her footing. Once she was solid again, Cyclops fired an optic beam at her chest, knocking her back. She landed on her side and skidded across the ground. Now angry, she dissolved into gas again, but dispersed immediately to hide herself. The two boys looked around the surroundings, but could not see her. Slowly, she reformed behind them and leapt into the air. Just as Cyclops caught a glimpse of her, she had already delivered a swift kick to Cyclops's head. Before Forge could even turn around, Ziz swept the ground with her leg, tripping Forge. As he landed, she kicked him on the side and he slid across the ground in pain.

Ziz smirked as the two slowly got to their feet. "Nice try, humans. But you can't beat me."

But the fight was not over. Jubilee continued to throw fireworks at Shammah's way, though he would just spit and intercept each firework in midair. As Jubilee was keeping Shammah busy, Jean used her power to pick up a boulder behind Shammah and fling it at his back. The collision knocked him forward and he fell on his front. Refusing to admit any kind of loss, Shammah spit at the earth beneath Jubilee. The ground below her feet started to dissolve and Jubilee dropped into the newly-formed hole. Jean flew to check on her, but was tackled from the side by Shammah. Jean fell and rolled across the ground, ending up just a few feet from Cyclops.

"Switch?" she asked him as he helped her up.

He nodded. The two of them immediately switched places. Cyclops fired an optic blast at Shammah as Jean created a telekinetic bubble around Ziz. Shammah was hit on his right shoulder and sent spinning wildly into the air. At the same time, Ziz was trying desperately to escape from Jean's psychic prison, but found that transforming into a gas was not helping her.

Shammah shook his head to relieve the slight dizziness he was feeling. He then turned to the X-Men and ran at Cyclops and Forge.

Jean levitated the psychic bubble holding Ziz and crashed it hard into the earth. Shaken by the attack, Ziz screamed in anger and turned into a gas. She then pushed against the psychic bubble at every location and with all of her might until it finally shattered. She took a couple breaths and then punched the ground in frustration.

Forge transformed his arm and shot a grappling hook to Jubilee. She grabbed it and was able to pull herself out.

Shammah growled in anger. "Losing to you would be unacceptable… We will not fail the Shadow Prince!"

Ziz got to her feet and looked at Jean and Cyclops, both in fighting positions. "Don't worry, Shammah. We're just getting started…" she said. Ziz transformed into a cloud of poisonous gas and flew at them.

* * *

Behemot yelled as she stomped. Now sixty feet tall, the impact of her foot colliding with the ground sent shockwaves knocking Colossus and Wolverine back. She then attempted to swipe at them with her massive three-fingered hand.

"I will crush you like the bugs you are," she said.

Colossus quickly dropped to the ground and dodged her hand as it slashed at the air above him. Wolverine was not as lucky, getting hit in the chest and sent flying into the air.

Colossus rushed at her and slammed into her ankle. Behemot grunted, but felt little pain. She brought her massive leg back and kicked Colossus. He was sent skidding along the ground. He moaned as slowly got back on his feet.

About fifty feet away, Livyatan was using both of her arms as whips, swiftly attacking Rogue, Iceman, and Gambit. She shot her left arm forward, transforming the end into a spear. Gambit spun around to dodge it, but it still grazed his side as it flung forwards.

Livyatan pulled her arms back and started to twist them together. The ends reformed into a giant hammer. "Say goodbye!" she shouted. She flung her arms down and the giant weight flew towards them.

Thinking fast, Iceman put his hands above his head and created a giant shield of ice. He tried to make it as thick as he could, and made sure that it covered not just him but Rogue and Gambit as well. Livyatan's hammer-like hands slammed against the massive sheet of ice. Her attack was repelled, but the ice shattered into bits.

"Okay," Iceman said. "We're gonna need a better plan."

"Gotcha covered," Gambit said as he threw several playing cards at her.

Livyatan ducked as the cards flew over her head. She looked forward and saw Gambit charging a playing card in his hand.

"Here ya go!" Gambit said as he tossed a single charged-up card towards Iceman, who then formed a spear of ice around it. Iceman smirked and launched the giant icicle at Livyatan.

"Get ready for the hailstorm!" Iceman shouted as the ice spear crashed on top of Livyatan. The charged-up card inside then exploded, sending a barrage of ice around her. "Booyaka!" he shouted.

But the victory was short-lived. The two saw that she had taken no damage from the assault because she morphed her whole body into a pool of liquid, and she very slowly transformed back into her solid form after expending so much energy.

As soon as she reformed into her normal form, Livyatan saw that Rogue was right above her. Before Livyatan could react, Rogue placed her hand on Livyatan's face.

"You truly are amazing, chérie," Gambit said to Rogue. "Keep it up!"

Rogue smirked and kept a firm grasp on Livyatan, who screamed in pain as she felt her powers being drained out of her body. Livyatan eventually managed to throw Rogue off after a couple of seconds. She slowly leapt back, putting some space in between them. "That totally hurt! I am going to kill you, skunk-hair," she grunted.

"You're gonna have a hard time with that now that I can mimic your powers," Rogue replied as she reformed her hand into a whip and lashed it at Livyatan.

Livyatan dodged the attack and shouted in anger. "Mimic this!" Livyatan reshaped her body into a tidal wave and rushed at the three.

Meanwhile, Behemot aimed her fist at Colossus and punched. He planted his feet firmly in the ground and countered with his own punch. The two fists collided, but Behemot's massive size proved to be stronger, pounding Colossus into the ground. However, he did manage to knock her off balance a bit, and she took a couple steps back.

Wolverine ran over to Colossus and helped him get back up. "You pack quite a punch, tin man."

Colossus groaned. "Thanks. Too bad it's not enough to defeat her."

"Then I suggest a new approach," Wolverine said.

"Like what?" Colossus asked.

Wolverine turned to him. "Fastball Special, bub."

"Gotcha," Colossus answered. Then he turned to Wolverine, with a look of confusion on his face. "Wait… What's a 'Fastball Special'?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," he said. "Pick me up and throw me at her."

"You sure that'll work?"

"Nope," Wolverine answered. "But I've got a good feeling about it."

Colossus nodded and picked Wolverine up by the back of his uniform shirt. He pulled back a bit and readied his stance. Colossus then shouted as he threw Wolverine into the air with all of his might.

His adamantium claws aimed straight at her, Wolverine soared towards Behemot's face. He roared as he sliced at her. Though just barely enough to pierce her skin, the attack had surprised her and threw her off balance. She grunted in pain as she fell backwards and landed hard on the ground.

Behemot moaned as she glared at them. She slowly got to her feet. "That hurt," she grumbled. "You'll pay for that."

Wolverine landed and walked back to Colossus. He pulled out a cigar and lit it. "See? What'd I tell ya?"

"I think I like the Fastball Special," Colossus said. "Wouldn't mind doing that again."

"Good," Wolverine said as he let out a slow puff of smoke. "Okay. Now it's time to get serious."

* * *

Though she had a good head start, Eleazar and his beasts had steadily managed to decrease the distance between them and Shadowcat. She was having trouble trying to escape him, knowing full well that she was slower than both him and the animals he was controlling.

"Self's current situation is still unclear. Explanations are needed to better grasp current status," Warlock stated.

"Not a good time!" Shadowcat shouted as she eyed the red-tailed hawk looming overhead.

The hawk dived at her. She quickly stepped to the left and avoided it. It circled away and she lost sight of it again. However, her actions had put her one step closer to the coyote. Seeing its opportunity, it leapt at her with its jaws wide open. Shadowcat phased through its attack and continued to run as fast as she could.

The greyhound had caught up and was running alongside her. It was trying to edge her further left, towards the German shepherd that was only a few paces behind Shadowcat. She decided to head right instead, phasing as she ran through the greyhound. Shocked by her sudden change of path, the greyhound had to make a sudden turn, giving Shadowcat another gain in run distance.

It was then that she felt the raven clawing at her hands. It had managed to leave a deep scratch, but she acted fast enough and phased through the rest of its attempts. She swatted at the raven and it had to halt in midair to avoid getting hit. Paying too much attention to the raven, the German shepherd snuck up on her and managed to bite her left calf. It wasn't able to hold on and luckily its sharp teeth had not cut too deep, but the sudden pain caused her to trip.

Shadowcat fell forwards, but she made sure to hold onto the enhancer. She came down hard on her left shoulder, causing a great deal of pain. She did not think that she dislocated her shoulder, but now she was having trouble staying focused on the situation.

"A valiant attempt, but it was overall quite pointless," Eleazar said as her finally caught up with her. He stepped on her back and kept her pinned down. Shadowcat wanted to cry out in pain, but kept herself from doing so. "It was rather fun seeing you try to outrun me. I do enjoy it when humans try their hardest and still fail to the strengths of demons."

"I'm going to bring Kurt back, and you and your stupid little Disney animal friends can't stop me," she said defiantly.

Eleazar simply ignored her. "Your threats are a joke. Now give me the enhancer and I'll make your death a quick one. Otherwise, you'll be spending the short remainder of your life in quite unfavorable conditions as my friends tear you apart limb by limb." He grinned a dark smile and Shadowcat could hear his animals caw and howl in approval. "Your choice, human."

Shadowcat closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "You know what?" she asked slowly.

The tone of her voice concerned him. Eleazar narrowed his eyes at her and his smile vanished.

"Bite me," she said with a smile on her face.

Shadowcat then became intangible and sunk into the ground. Eleazar, angry that he had just let her slip through his fingers, frantically clawed at the ground. Though he was far too late and she had escaped. His three canines began to dig up the earth where she was last seen, but he knew it was pointless. He had his two birds scan the surroundings to see if she had reappeared, but they could not find any hint of Shadowcat at all.

Eleazar groaned. "Nowhere to run, human. So where did you go?" he muttered to himself.

Shadowcat had continued to fall lower and lower into the earth. Knowing that returning to the surface would have been a suicide option, she was taking her chances and hoping against reason that there was some kind of underground tunnel somewhere below. To her dismay, she continued to phase downward and could not find anything like that. Her body was still under a great amount of pain and she knew that she would not be able to hold her breath much longer.

She knew she was at the end of her rope. She was sinking lower and lower, and she couldn't continue phasing any longer. She had gambled and lost. At least I managed to hide the enhancer, she thought to herself as she slowly lost consciousness. She then grew sad knowing that she would never get to say goodbye to her parents, Professor Xavier, Rogue, Kurt… the real Kurt… She had failed at trying to save Kurt. She had let him done when he needed her the most, and she felt terrible. The last thing she remembered seeing before she blacked out was the small cube in her hand glow ominously.

* * *

"Honestly, mother," Avshalom said. "What do you plan to do? We both know your powers pale in comparison to mine, even if father had not also bestowed his powers on me." He slowly walked around Mystique and stared at her. "So that means that you actually think you can talk me out of freeing father. How laughable. I am no longer Kurt Wagner; I am Avshalom, the Shadow Prince."

"So you've abandoned your identity as an X-Men and my son?" she asked him.

He smirked. "Same body, of course, but I've had a change of heart."

"I better understand what happened now," Mystique said. "I now know that Magneto was trying to prevent your demon side from crossing into our world. Because of my foolishness to accept the reality around me, Magneto was only able to prevent your memories from reaching you. Granted, he could have explained things a bit better, I'm sure. Though now it seems you've regained your memories, no doubt with the help of your father."

"No doubt," Avshalom replied.

"But I wonder…" Mystique started. "Did you regain all of your memories?"

Avshalom narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you talking about?"

"If I read up on the history correctly, you're acting rather out of character, aren't you? Didn't you have a big falling out with your father just before all the demons were banished to another world?"

Avshalom grunted. "I don't recall that."

"I didn't think you would," she responded coolly.

"You talk too much. Just tell me what you are trying to imply, mother." Avshalom stated impatiently.

"I'm just wondering whether you're acting of your own accord… or if you're being manipulated by your father. After all, he often uses others for his own goals. I highly doubt his own son would be exempt from this. Have you ever considered that he's only using you right now?"

Avshalom summoned the darkness around him and had it surround the two of them. "Father gave me his powers over the shadows. Does that not prove his confidence in me? Does that not prove my loyalty to him?"

"I don't trust the Shadow King, and neither should you," Mystique said. "Your disciples follow your orders with blind loyalty, and now you follow your father's in similar fashion. I would have thought that my own son would have had more of a flair for questioning authority, considering my own colorful history."

Avshalom merely grunted in response. The shadows around him swirled, slowly closing in tighter.

Mystique continued. "Perhaps you would better understand if your father gave you the whole story of your past, and not just the lies he wants you to believe in. Everything you see now is only what he has told you. He has painted this picture of your life, where you are this good obedient son, and you bought right into it. It's all lies. It means nothing."

Avshalom screamed in anger. He shot two shadowy tendrils out from the darkness to bind Mystique. "No more mind games. I was going to spare your life, mother, but you've put me in a rather foul mood. And now that I think about it, I'm disappointed I couldn't bring myself to finish you off three years ago. But things are different now, mother. I'm going to do what Kurt Wagner never had the courage to do: make sure you stay out of my life."

Mystique closed her eyes. "I'm not going to claim that I'm perfect. We all know that I'm going to have to pay for my sins, especially the ones concerning you and your sister. But what I'm doing now, I'm doing as your mother. I love you, and I won't let you do this to yourself. Stop now before it's too late. But if you don't listen to me, then I know that the real Kurt… your real soul… is lost. If that's the case, then there's no point in being a mother when she's lost her son."

"I tire of hearing your voice, mother." He tightened the shadows around her body. "Are you done yet?"

Mystique nodded. "I have nothing left to say to you if you are no longer my son."

Avshalom summoned another tendril from the shadows. He made sure it would be strong enough to spear through her in one blow. He smiled. "Pity you won't live long enough to see father's triumphant return."

"Pity my son is gone," she responded.

Then his whole body flinched slightly and he started breathing a bit heavier. "Nicht durch Zorn, sondern durch Lachen tötet man." He awkwardly laughed to himself, placing his own hand on his face to try to calm himself down. He ignored the tears welling in his eyes and flung the spear-like shadow at Mystique. "Goodbye, mother."

* * *

Kitty slowly opened her eyes. At first, everything was blurry, but she eventually was able to make out where she was. It looked like some sort of cave, with not very much sunlight but enough so that she could still see. She felt as if she was lying down on numerous rocks. She turned and saw that she was indeed on top of many large, round white rocks. She slowly sat up and tried to recall what had happened. She remembered phasing through the ground, but that was about didn't remember finding any kind of underground cave, but perhaps she found one and passed out, she thought to herself. That wouldn't exactly explain why an underground cave would have sunlight, but it still made more sense than a talking alien computer cube. Then again, lots of things made more sense than a talking alien computer cube. Like quantum physics, she thought.

"Where are we?" Kitty asked. She was still in more pain than she'd like.

"Self has transported us via a wormhole," Warlock replied.

"What? Wormhole? And that wasn't really an answer. Where are we?"

"Using 77.612% of self's power, self was able to open up a small hole in your dimension. Both of us were transported to this dimension. It will take some time before self has regained enough power and can open another wormhole to transport us back."

"Okay, that's great and all. But, I must ask again, where are we?"

"Self assumed that this matter was made clear. Self has brought us to another dimension. The dimension currently inhabited and ruled by demons."

"What?" Kitty screamed louder than she had wanted. "Warlock, I was just trying to escape from the demons chasing me and here you brought us straight to their dimension! That's insane! Why would you do that?"

"Self can only transport between these two dimensions. However, concern that the demons may attack again should be unwarranted as the two of us are very far from any major demon residence."

"Oh that's a relief…" Kitty said sarcastically. "Maybe just some minor demon residences…"

"Now that there is ample time to discuss the matters, please explain current situation regarding self and how others have become involved."

Kitty sighed. "Okay, so to make a long story short, some demons managed to get into our dimension, possessed one of my friends, and now they're all trying to, like, bring about Armageddon. We learned that the Soul Sword is the key to stopping them and saving my friend, so we went looking for you, whatever exactly you are."

"Self better understands the current situation now."

"Good," she replied.

"But self still has additional questions. Most prominently, self fails to understand how this war between humans and demons is continuing today despite the fact that self was integral to banishing the demons to another realm. Please, explain further."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute. How about first you explain how you're involved in this? Start from the beginning. What's an alien-robot-thing like you doing on Earth?"

Warlock seemed to hesitate a bit before speaking again. "It is a long and complicated tale."

Kitty yawned. "I'm listening. Besides, we need to do something to pass the time before you can warp us back."

Warlock seemed to glow a little. "As stated earlier, self is a Technarch. The Technarchy are cyber-organic beings of the planet Kvch. Each Technarch is created for a purpose to better the Technarchy; for example, self was created to be a transportation vessel, allowing Technarchs to travel great distances through wormholes. All Technarchs have limited individuality and mostly operate within the hive mind, controlled by the overlord being called the Magus."

"But you speak as if you do have your own personality? Then what exactly is that whole thing about the hive mind?"

"Much like yourself, self would be described as a mutant. Self has the misfortune of having free-will."

"'Misfortune'? Why are you saying that like it's a bad thing?" Kitty asked.

"Individuality is not tolerated by the Magus. Technarchs that do not function perfectly within the world of the Technarchy are removed, separated from the mainframe as if it were a disastrous virus," Warlock hesitated again before continuing to speak. "Sometimes, broken Technarchs are sent to be repaired. But when the Magus discovered self was broken beyond what the Magus could fix, self's existence became a threat to the Technarchy.

"Self was captured by the Magus's elite soldiers, the Phalanx. Self was deemed a threat to the Technarchy and exiled from Kvch. Depowered, self spent many, many years dully flying through space and finally self came to land on Earth.

"When self arrived, Earth was currently in a great war. Humans were fighting demons and demons were fighting humans. There was much wrongdoing and bloodshed on both sides. It was a kind of chaos self has never before experienced.

"Self was brought back to full power by the first person whom discovered self: Avshalom, the Shadow Prince."

"Avshalom?" Kitty asked. "Why would demon Kurt do that? Why would he save you?"

"Avshalom showed great compassion in taking care of self. Self owes much to Avshalom's kindness."

"What?" she shouted hysterically. "'Compassion'? 'Kindness'? Are we speaking about the same person here? Avshalom's the son of the demon who's trying to destroy all of humanity! I'm sorry to say this but I don't think the apple fell far from the tree!"

"Self does not understand how vegetation and fruit is important to the current situation."

Kitty sighed. "Never mind, Warlock. What I was trying to say was that, while Kurt may be a great guy, Avshalom is bound to be as evil as the Shadow King."

"That is only true of the past. The Avshalom that found self despised his father."

"Really? Why?" Kitty asked.

"Avshalom originally carried out his father's orders with no hesitation. As Pride's Gateway, he was responsible for many victories over the humans. However, despite the war between humans and demons, Avshalom actually fell in love with a human girl named Tamar. His father discovered this and thusly had her killed, believing that all humans needed to be killed to promote the welfare of demons. The Shadow King's act had made Avshalom see his father and the war in a new light. Avshalom knew that repenting for his sins and begging for peace would not be enough, so he devised a way to end the war.

"After self was back to full power, self told Avshalom about self's powers to open portals between dimensions. Resolving to end the war without killing anyone anymore, Avshalom and self decided to work together to send all demons to another dimension. If successful, the war would end and there would never again be any way for demons and humans to interact.

"Self transformed into self's most powerful form: the Soul Sword. Normally, self can only open a wormhole that can transport beings within a single dimension. The other dimension is merely used as means of transportation and it is impossible to create a wormhole that would lead directly to there. However, Avshalom discovered that when self is in the form of the Soul Sword, self can open a portal that leads to the other dimension. The only drawback is that self will absorb so much energy that there will be a devastating backlash. Thus, Avshalom separated self's CPU from self's Soul Sword body, allowing the backlash to take place in a location of Avshalom's choosing. Avshalom then used the Soul Sword to send the Shadow King to another dimension. The portal was strong enough that is also pulled in all demons including Avshalom."

"So the little cube you that's talking to me isn't just an enhancer, but you're the CPU of the Soul Sword. The brain of the body, really. But then why does Avshalom need both the sword and the CPU? Why can't he just use the Soul Sword to free his father?" Kitty asked.

"This sort of dimension transporting can only be accomplished once, and this is with a single attack with the Soul Sword when self's CPU is unattached. However, to open another similar portal, self's CPU would either have to be destroyed or be reattached to self's Soul Sword body."

"I see…" Kitty said. "So Avshalom and the Shadow King win if you're either destroyed or reattached."

"Affirmative," replied Warlock.

"One more question, though. Why is Avshalom working for the Shadow King if you just said that he hates him?"

"Self would only believe Avshalom would work for his father again if he lost his memories."

"That makes sense…" Kitty said to herself.

Warlock glowed again. "Self will be ready to transport the both of us back to your dimension in two minutes."

Kitty nodded and stood up. As she got to her feet she knocked over one of the stones. When the white stone started to move and crack, Kitty started to panic. "Warlock, where exactly are we in this other dimension? These rocks look like eggs."

"Affirmative," Warlock replied. "The current location is in a dragon's nest. A Neilah Dragon's nest, to be precise."

"Dragons? Then shouldn't we be getting out of here, like, right now?" Kitty asked, frantically looking around. "I remember those same dragons that attacked us a few years back at the Sadie Hawkins dance! That is not good! What if mama raptor comes back is gets angry? I should have paid more attention to _xkcd_ to prepare for raptor attacks!"

"Although self does not understand what a Sadie Hawkins dance is, nor what the random letters _xkcd_ mean, self can assure you that you are mistaken. The raptor-like dragons are Havdalah Dragons. They are dark maroon-colored pack animals that lack wings. Neilah Dragons are violet-colored. They are large solitary predators with wings that allow them to fly. The two are completely different species of dragons," Warlock answered.

"Oh thank you!" Kitty shouted. "Now I know that we'll be swallowed by a giant winged-dragon and not ripped to shreds by dragon raptors! That's such an improvement!"

"The scenario you have descried is highly unlikely," Warlock replied. "Because the Shadow King is preparing for war, he most likely captured most, if not all, of the Neilah Dragons to use as beasts in his army. If a Neilah Dragon does return to this nest, it would have had to escape from the Shadow King's army and thus would be too weak to pose a significant threat to a human who can become intangible. Thus, fearing a sudden Neilah Dragon attack is rather unwarranted."

Kitty sighed. "I wish you had a body so I could punch you in the face, Warlock…" Kitty looked at the egg. It continued to crack until small arms and wings were sticking out of it. In a few seconds, a baby purple dragon emerged from eggs. It looked at Kitty and growled. It slowly walked over to her and wrapped its tail around her leg.

"What's it doing?" Kitty asked.

"You were the first thing the dragon saw and have thus been imprinted upon it as its mother," Warlock stated.

Kitty sighed. "'Mother'? Are you serious? Oh, my day just keeps getting better…" She picked up the small dragon and cradled it. It weakly roared then licked her cheek. "At least it's cute…"

"It is now time to transport back to the original dimension," Warlock interrupted.

"Where will we be transported to?"

"Self will transport all three of us to the location of the person you were last thinking of before you fainted."

"You mean just before you transported us here in the first place?"

"Affirmative. Self used your thoughts to know where to transport to. The location was decided once self opened the wormhole approximately ten minutes ago."

"But… I was thinking of… Kurt… the real Kurt," Kitty said quietly. The baby dragon roared a bit.

"Then that is where the three of us will be going. Wherever the location Kurt Wagner is at right now will be the destination point for the return transportation."

"But that means we're going to be dealing with Avshalom once we get back. A very powerful demon who doesn't happen to remember he doesn't like killing humans."

"Affirmative," Warlock replied.

Kitty groaned. "I really hope I can make up a plan on the fly…"

The small cube in her hand glowed brightly. The three immediately vanished from the dragon's cave.

* * *

As Avshalom sent the shadowy tendril towards Mystique, a flash of light appeared in front of the demon. It was so bright that it cut through all of the shadows Avshalom had summoned. The shadows had dissolved away, even the one about to spear Mystique. Mystique fell to the ground and saw a person standing in front of her.

"Who are you?" Mystique asked.

"Hopefully not someone who's about to get killed…" Kitty replied.

Mystique realized who it was and narrowed her eyes at Kitty. "Oh good. The little pink X-Man. Wonderful. And what brings you here? Think you're going to be able to talk Kurt out of it?"

"That's what I'm hoping for…" Kitty said.

"Well, I guess I've heard of stupider plans. Good luck, X-Man…" Mystique transformed into a raven and flew away into the night.

Avshalom glared at Kitty. "Another surprise visitor. I'm curious, how did you get here?"

Kitty held out her hand and showed him Warlock. Avshalom laughed. "Ah yes, my old ally Warlock. A pity we no longer see eye-to-eye. But no matter. That tiny cube will still provide much use to me and my father…"

"I know all about the Soul Sword. But more importantly, I know about your past, Kurt."

"Avshalom," he angrily corrected her.

"I don't care what you say. You're still Kurt. And I'm here to make you realize that."

Avshalom laughed. "No matter what you say, I will always be the Shadow Prince. And I am loyal to my father's cause. You are too late, foolish human girl. Hand me the Soul Sword's CPU or die trying to protect it. Either way, humanity will fall and demons will rule this world."

"Really?" Kitty asked. "You're ready to kill all humans?"

"Of course," Avshalom replied. "I will see to it that no human be spared. I will show no mercy."

"What about Tamar? Did her death make you happy?"

Avshalom's entire body froze. His eyes seemed to widen and he looked extremely uncomfortable. He started sweating and then his tail started to twitch violently. "Tamar?" he said quietly.

"You loved her didn't you?" Kitty asked. "And she was a human."

"I know her… she was… very special to me… but… she… died…" Avshalom said slowly, as if he was trying to remember his past. "No… she didn't die… she was killed…"

"She died because of the war between humans and demons, Kurt," Kitty said. "Nothing good can come from war."

"Tamar is dead… She was killed…" Avshalom continued to say. "Killed by… my father…"

"Yes, Kurt. You need to remember this."

He looked at Kitty. "You look like her…"

She felt very self-conscious about the two of them now. This was the first time she could see a bit of the real Kurt in Avshalom. Almost as if he was struggling to regain control. "That may be, Kurt… but I'm not Tamar… I'm Kitty."

"Kitty…" he mumbled.

"Kätzchen," she added.

"Kätzchen," Avshalom repeated slowly. "You are… also very special…"

Kitty couldn't help but feel nervous. "Kurt, I know you're still in there. You need to end the war now. You cannot free the Shadow King."

"But… I am alone now… so alone," Avshalom grabbed his head in his hands. "Why am I always so alone?"

"You're not alone! You have your family! You have your friends! You have me!"

"Kitty…" Avshalom said slowly.

"Please, Kurt. The X-Men need you. Mystique needs you. Rogue needs you. I need you."

He groaned as if his whole body was in pain. "I don't know what to think anymore…"

"Kurt… I… I love you!" It kind of came out rather unexpected, but she felt that she knew it all along. Avshalom glanced at her. She continued to talk. "Kurt, we can save you. Please, come back to us!"

Kitty extended her hand. Avshalom looked at her hand. He didn't move at first, and the scene was silent. "Kitty…" he mumbled. Then, he slowly started to reach out to hold her hand. He was soon mere centimeters from touching her fingers.

But then, Avshalom screamed in pain. He grabbed his head as if he had a tormenting headache. "No! No more! Leave me, father! Leave me!" Avshalom then summoned the shadows around him and created more tendrils of darkness. One shot out and snatched Warlock out of Kitty's hand before she could react.

"No! Stop!" she shouted. "Warlock!"

The shadows brought the small cube to Avshalom, who then reattached it to the Soul Sword. Then entire weapon glowed. Avshalom held the Soul Sword up high, as if he were about to slash the air.

"No! Kurt, don't do it!" Kitty screamed. She looked into the sky and saw the full moon was just about to set.

Kitty began to run towards Avshalom. The baby dragon had to wrap its tail around her arm to keep from falling off. But when she got close, she was soon staring at a small dimensional portal. And it emitted a fiery glow and an evil aura. Kitty couldn't really see what was in the portal except for glowing white eyes.

"MY SON… FREE ME… I MUST BE FREE BEFORE THE FULL MOON SETS… YOU MUST FREE ME NOW…"

"Father… I can't," Avshalom replied. "I don't want to…"

"NO… YOU WILL FREE ME NOW…"

"I refuse to obey you…"

"YOU DARE TO REPEAT YOUR PAST MISTAKE… YOU CANNOT REFUSE MY ORDERS… I AM THE SHADOW KING… MASTER OF THE DARKNESS… RULER OF THE DEMONS… AND YOU WILL OBEY ME…"

Avshalom was silent. Kitty didn't know what to do or say. She quickly glanced at the sky and saw that the moon was so close to setting now. She knew that it would only be a few more minutes before the moon had completely set.

"ACT NOW… FREE ME… YOU MUST OBEY THE SHADOW KING…"

"He's right, my Prince," Ishboshet said, slowly walking to meet Avshalom. He looked as if it was taking all of his strength to remain on his feet. "You know that you must obey him, just as we must obey you."

"YES… YES… NOW SET ME FREE… MANKIND WILL FALL… DEMONS WILL TAKE THEIR PROPER PLACE AS RULERS OF THIS WORLD…"

"No…" Avshalom replied again. "You killed her… Tamar… You killed her!"

"THAT HUMAN FILTH… SHE DESERVED TO DIE… JUST AS ALL HUMANS DESERVE TO DIE… THEY ARE DUSGUSTING CREATURES… EARTH BELONGS TO US AND US ALONE… ONLY DEMONS DESERVE TO LIVE…"

"You're wrong… You're wrong…"

"THEN YOU HAVE LEARNED NOTHING…"

"No, I've learned everything! And I had to learn it on my own. I will never listen to you again!" Avshalom shouted. "I stopped your war before, and I'm stopping it again now!"

"SUCH GARBAGE… IT WOULD BE AMUSING IF IT WAS NOT SO PATHETIC… BUT YOU CANNOT DEFY ME… FOR I AM AZAZEL… I AM THE SHADOW KING…"

Avshalom dropped the Soul Sword. It cut into the ground and remained standing. "No…"

"YOU WILL OBEY THE RULE OF THE SHADOW KING… YOU WILL OBEY ME…"

"I will not obey you," Avshalom said with a slight smirk. "You're not the Shadow King."

"YOU SPEAK SUCH NONSENSE… I AM THE SHADOW KING… I CONTROL THE SHADOWS… I CONTROL THE DARKNESS… I CONTROL ALL THAT IS UNDER THE MOONLIGHT…"

"No, you don't," Avshalom said. "I do…"

"NONSENSE…"

"You gave me all of your powers, father. Remember? I now have your powers over the darkness. Therefore, thanks to you, I am the Shadow King."

"YOU DISRESPECTFUL HUMAN-LOVER…"

"He who controls the shadows is the Shadow King, isn't that right?"

"YOU DARE USE MY OWN POWERS AGAINST ME… YOU WILL SUFFER FOR YOUR INSOLENCE…"

"My first order is to end the war. There will be no more fighting between humans and demons."

"COWARD… YOU WASTE MY POWERS… YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE GREATNESS OF MY PLANS… YOU WILL RUIN IT ALL…"

"My second order is to have you locked away. Forever. I'm sure the demons in your dimension will help me with that."

"YOU ARE A FOOL… NEVER WILL THEY OBEY YOUR RIDICULOUS ORDERS… DEMONS WOULD NOT HARM ME… FOR I AM THE REAL SHADOW KING…"

"I am sorry to say this, my former King, but I disagree," Ishboshet added. "He is right; we no longer serve you. And the demons grew tired of the war many centuries ago. We only obeyed you because we had to. Because you were the Shadow King. And now you may find the public's true opinion of you rather… unfavorable."

"LIES… I WILL NOT BE HUMILIATED BY THE LIKES OF YOU TRAITORS… DEMONS LOVE ME…"

"You told us all that the demons were the perfect race of beings, and that the war was our way of perfecting the world. What an amazing lie that was!" Avshalom said. "Because of you, demons have created an era of fear, an era of destruction. And now, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."

"TRULY DESPICABLE… YOU HAVE TURNED ON YOUR OWN KIND… YOU WILL REGRET YOUR FOOLISH ACTIONS…"

Avshalom turned to Ishboshet. "My third and final order as Shadow King is to end the Shadow Empire. You have proved that it has become too dictatorial; absolute power corrupts." He closed his eyes with a smile. "So I'm giving up the power to control shadows. Never again can there be a Shadow King to terrorize the people."

"NO… MY FREE DOM… MY SON… YOU CANNOT…"

"I can… And I just did…"

"NO… AVSHALOM…" The voice faded and soon the portal was left empty. Slowly, the portal closed. Avshalom glanced at the sky and saw that the sun had just started to rise. He smiled.

* * *

"Warlock?" Avshalom asked.

"Affirmative." The Soul Sword still stuck in the ground now had Warlock's voice.

"I leave you in charge of dealing with cross-dimensional transportation. If demons want to live in this dimension, and humans want to live in that dimension, and they agree to live peaceful lives, then I think that it should be allowed."

"Self agrees." Warlock then started to transform. The Soul Sword form soon became that of a humanoid robot. It had the same black and silver color-scheme, but was now six feet tall.

Avshalom smiled. "And, Warlock, I would like you to join the X-Men."

"'The X-Men'? Self does not know what this is?"

"It's my team. It's my family. We're really just a bunch of mutants who use our powers to save the world," Avshalom stated.

"Self better understands now. This is what friend Kitty is a part of as well."

"Yes. And I'm sure Professor Xavier would welcome you into the family. I know you can do great things if you stay with us… Of course, only if you would want to…"

"Self believes that it is very possible to be in charge of cross-dimensional transportation and to be an X-Man. If Avshalom believes the X-Men are good people, then self will join the X-Men. Self trusts Avshalom," Warlock replied, with the smallest hint of happiness in his robotic voice. "Self may be near or far, but self is always only one wormhole away." Warlock then brightly glowed and disappeared.

Avshalom turned to Ishboshet. "I'm sorry for everything. For what my father made you do. For what I made you do. You are no longer under my command. I want you and the other five to live your own lives now. You're all free."

Ishboshet nodded. "I am sure the other demons have felt the fall of the Shadow King."

"Um…" Kitty interrupted. "Does that mean you guys aren't trying to kill us anymore?"

Ishboshet quietly chuckled. "Yes. They will have stopped fighting with your X-Men friends now. After all, the six of us only enjoyed fighting humans because it was what the Shadow Prince wanted. And we just wanted to loyally serve you."

"I know," Avshalom said. "I'm truly grateful for the loyalty the six of you have shown me over the years. But I can no longer ask you to live by my orders. Now is the time to live as individuals."

"You will hear no more trouble on our part. As my last duty to you, I can at least promise you that we will never harm humans again."

"That is good to hear," Avshalom responded.

"But what will you do? Your father is now powerless and you are no longer needed to rule over the demon world in his place. You too are a free man."

"I plan on sticking around here for a while." He glanced at Kitty. "I've made some friends. I know I can help people here. After all, I'm still an X-Man, Ishboshet. My duty is to the people." He looked at Ishboshet. "But I should be asking you the very same thing. What will you and the others do now?"

"I do not know," Ishboshet said with a smile. "For the first time in my life, I do not know what I will be doing, and I am very happy." He bowed. "My former Prince." To Ishboshet's surprise, his former master bowed as well.

Ishboshet smiled. "We will meet again, Avshalom," Ishboshet said as he walked away.

"Please, call me 'Kurt'."

* * *

Kitty slowly walked up to Kurt. "So… are you… you?" She looked at him, unsure whether she really had her friend back.

Kurt nodded. "I'm me. As much as I was before all this. I still remember my life as Avshalom, but I know that I'm really Kurt Wagner. I guess I can consider Avshalom's life more like a past life or something. But I'm still… me. I still like to make bad jokes, I still sing German covers of Beatles songs, and I still hope that chicks dig the fuzzy one."

Kitty smiled and the baby dragon roared. "Oh, you're definitely back to being Kurt."

Kurt laughed. "Kätzchen, when did you get a dragon?"

Kitty laughed too. "Long story. Warlock took me to a Neilah Dragon nest. Turns out this little dragon thinks I'm its mommy now."

Kurt pet the dragon. "He reminds me of my own pet Neilah Dragon I had way back when. His name was 'Lockheed'."

"I like that name," Kitty said. She held up the dragon. "From now on, your name is 'Lockheed'." The dragon replied with a roar and flapped its wings. It began to fly around the two.

Kurt looked at Kitty. "So, where were we?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I believe you told me you love me just a little while back," he said with a smile.

Kitty blushed. "Yeah… well… I might have said something like that… I think the moment called for it though…"

"That's funny."

"Funny?"

"Yeah, because I think I love you too," he replied.

She smirked. "What do you mean by 'think'?"

Kurt smiled. "You know me… I'm a hands-on learner." He pulled Kitty into a tight embrace. "I learn much better with a physical example."

Kitty returned the smile and kissed him hard on the lips. It was their first kiss. It had taken them years. It came only after immense hardship and pain. But both of them wouldn't have had it any other way.

As they pulled away, Kurt whispered in her ear. "Es ist wahr: wir lieben das Leben, nicht, weil wir ans Leben, sondern weil wir ans Lieben gewöhnt sind. Es ist immer etwas Wahnsinn in der Liebe. Es ist aber auch immer etwas Vernunft im Wahnsinn."

"You know I don't understand German, Kurt," she responded. But Kurt only smiled.

Kitty leaned in close to his ear. "But you know what I do know?" she whispered.

"What, Kätzchen?" he asked.

She hit him upside the head. "You still owe me a cherry vanilla ice cream."


End file.
